UN condemns death sentences in Ukraine

The UN human rights office has expressed concern at the sentencing to death of a Moroccan man and two Britons by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine, saying such trials against prisoners of war amounted to a war crime. The UN says the three were part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and therefore could not be described as mercenaries. The AFP news agency reports that Brahim Saadoun was a student in Ukraine when the war broke out, his father told Moroccan website Madar21, adding, “he is not a mercenary”.