The UN human rights office has expressed serious concerns over the sentencing to death of a Moroccan man and two Britons by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine, insisting that such trials against prisoners of war amounted to a war crime.
The UN noted that the three were part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and therefore could not be described as mercenaries.
Brahim Saadoun was a student in Ukraine when the war broke out, his father told Moroccan website Madar21, adding, ‘he is not a mercenary’.
Africa Daily News, New York had gathered that the father had accused the Ukrainian authorities of ‘recruiting foreign students and exploiting them in the war’ back in April.
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In a related development, the UN’s refugee agency has warned the Home Office twice that its arrangement to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful, the High Court has heard.
The agency’s lawyers excused it from the policy amid claims the Home Office has misrepresented the UN’s position.
It came as a legal challenge to stop the process got under way.
The government aims to discourage people crossing the English Channel to seek asylum by making it clear many cases will now be dealt with by Rwanda.
About 31 people have been told they may be on the first flight on Tuesday.
Just before the start of the hearing, it emerged at least three people have been told they will not now be put on that flight.
Home Office lawyers told the court the plan must not be stopped by legal challenges because it was in the public interest and also urged a judge to reject challenges on behalf of individual asylum seekers.
