In Rostov-on-Don, the trial of mercenaries who returned home with the help of Abramovich began strangely

At the first meeting of the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don in the case of five foreign mercenaries who took part in the battles on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the question arose – where, in fact, are the defendants themselves.

British citizens John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill, Croatian citizen Vekoslav Prebeg and Swede Matias Gustavsson were supposed to be in the dock. All of them are accused of war crimes and “mercenarism”.

However, as it turned out, even the state prosecutor does not know where these five are now. In this regard, the prosecutor at today’s meeting filed a petition to send a request to the military police of the RF Ministry of Defense about the whereabouts of five foreign mercenaries. The court upheld the petition and postponed the meeting to the end of June – on the 22nd.

Meanwhile, back in September last year, the British edition of the Mirror told about the return of three British subjects to their homeland thanks to the efforts of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, with the mediation of Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Among the exchanged prisoners was the Croat Vekislav Prebeg, as already reported by the Croatian media. The Swede Matiass Gustavsson also made the list.

By the way, the British Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, previously sentenced to capital punishment by the Donetsk court, were also in that group of foreign mercenaries. Pinner did not stay long at home. Already in December 2022, he again arrived in Ukraine. According to him, because his wife Larisa remained there. However, already at the beginning of this year he was seen at the front.

In theory, the current court in Rostov-on-Don should have been notified that it would be held in absentia. The trial is necessary in order to pass a sentence on the mercenaries. Recall that in August last year, the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic announced the charges against five “legionnaires”. Matthias Gustavsson, Vekoslav Prebeg and John Harding were charged with participation in hostilities as mercenaries and training to seize power by force. Andrew Hill – participation in hostilities as a mercenary, Dylan Healy – recruitment of mercenaries.

The case did not come to a verdict. Due to the fact that the region was preparing for a referendum on joining the Russian Federation, the court was moved to Rostov-on-Don. Until September last year, the defendants were in a pre-trial detention center in Donetsk, and then they were transferred to “authorized persons”. Why the judiciary was not aware of what was happening is a question.

Recall that some of the foreign citizens who will now be tried, apparently in absentia, were taken prisoner at Azovstal in the spring of last year. One Briton, a Swede and a Croat were part of the Azov battalion (recognized as a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).

60-year-old Briton John Harding, who was listed as a paramedic in the Azov regiment, is an experienced mercenary. He is a veteran of the Falklands War of 1982, a participant in the war in Syria on the side of the Kurds. After he was in the custody of the DPR and learned that under local law he faced the death penalty, John begged the British government to save him. He even burst into tears on camera.

Another Briton, Dylan Healy, at the trial in Donetsk, told in detail how he signed a cooperation contract with the British non-governmental charitable organization Presidium Network, after which he got to Ukraine through Krakow, Poland. Engaged in the recruitment and transportation of foreign mercenaries. In this connection, the British side has repeatedly stated that Dylan is supposedly a “volunteer” and not a mercenary.

British citizen Andrew Hill laid down his arms not at Azovstal, but near Nikolaev. Having been wounded, he chose to surrender in April last year. After the arrest, Hill from the city of Plymouth said that he had never been abroad before, had no military specialty, was divorced, and had four children. And so I decided to visit Ukraine. “The organization that I joined as soon as I crossed the border said that I would be more useful if I went with them,” the mercenary said with a blue eye.

A native of Zagreb, Vekoslav Prebeg dreamed of becoming a mercenary from his youth. However, he was not accepted into the French Foreign Legion, so he served for five years in the Croatian 1st mechanized battalion “Tigers”, and in 2020 he fulfilled his dream and joined the mercenaries in Ukraine. Where he met his fate – Ukrainian Irina. True, in 2022, a friend went to France as a refugee, and Prebeg ended up in Mariupol, from where he tried to escape through the fields in the spring of 2022. However, the “evacuation” failed: the group ran into Russian troops and was taken prisoner.

Swedish mercenary Matthias Gustavsson, who, according to him, bought Ukrainian citizenship for $700, signed a contract with the Ukrainian Marine Corps in February 2022 for just over $400 a month. However, already during the trial in the DPR, he said that he had not been paid the money. He ended up in Mariupol and surrendered while leaving Azovstal. According to him, during the defense of the plant, he did not shoot, but simply sat at his post. However, according to the laws of the DPR, he was threatened with a term of up to life.

In connection with all of the above, the current verdict will be more of a warning. If they catch him again, they will immediately put him in jail. Such a fate awaits, for example, Sean Pinner, who has already been sentenced to death. So it’s better for him not to be captured anymore.