Morocco Silent as Pro-Russian Separatists Hold Brahim Saadoun on Death Row

The president of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic stated that no correspondence has been received from Morocco or the United Kingdom regarding the Moroccan Brahim Saadoun and the two Britons sentenced to death for "mercenary" activities by the pro-Russian separatists.

For Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin, the only people to have contacted the pro-Russian authorities are the families of the three prisoners. And they did so through their lawyers. "Great Britain and Morocco have not even asked for news about the health of the prisoners," he said in a television interview.

The Moroccan authorities seem to be observing a certain neutrality in the war between Russia and Ukraine. In a recent statement, the Moroccan embassy in Kiev indicated that Brahim Saadoun enlisted in the Ukrainian army of his own free will and is imprisoned by an entity that is recognized neither by the United Nations nor by Morocco. The diplomatic representation also mentioned the Ukrainian nationality he would have obtained.

Before these unfortunate events, Brahim Saadoun was just a young man who had been pursuing his studies at the Kiev University of Aeronautics and Aerospace Sciences since 2017. In 2020, he would have obtained Ukrainian nationality, his father Taher Saadoun told The Guardian.

In Kiev, his friends describe a young man who likes to go on outings with friends, boozy evenings. But in 2021, he enlisted in the Ukrainian marine troops and was sent to Mariupol in November 2021 as a member of a Ukrainian troop unit.