• Brahim Saadoun was sentenced to death by a court in Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
• After being seized while fighting with Ukrainian forces.
• His father says he surrendered freely when taken in Volnovakha, a tiny village halfway between Mariupol and Donetsk.

Because his son possesses Ukrainian nationality, the father of a Moroccan national condemned to death; by a court in eastern Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) after being seized while fighting with Ukrainian forces.

Brahim Saadoun’s father, Tahar Saadoun, told the Reuters news agency that his son was not a mercenary; as the Moscow-backed DPR court had determined, and that his son had surrendered freely when taken in Volnovakha; a tiny village halfway between Mariupol and Donetsk.

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Brahim was granted Ukrainian citizenship in 2020 after completing a year of military service; as a condition for admission to a university in Kyiv to study aerospace technology.
He noted that his son will appeal the death sentence; but that the family’s agony had been made more difficult by a “lack of touch” with Brahim’s counsel.

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