The “Donetsk People’s Republic”, a pro-Russian breakaway state in east Ukraine, has accused Suedi Murekezi, a US citizen, of “inciting ethnic hatred”, his lawyer Sergey Litvishko reports.
“Murekezi has been captured for taking part in pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian rallies in Kherson,” Livishko says. He also added that Murekezi pleads not guilty and says he appeared at the rally “by accident.”
Murekezi was born in Rwanda and moved to the US with his parents in 1994, fleeing the Tutsi genocide. According to Donetsk News Agency, he has worked as a male dancer in one of Kherson’s night clubs in recent years. “Although Murekezi was linked with the US military in the past, his lawyer claims he did not fight in Donbas,” DAN says.
The so-called “Supreme Court” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” sentenced three foreign nationals for fighting on Ukraine’s side to death in early June. The men in question are Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, the UK citizens, and Brahim Saadun from Morocco. They were found guilty of mercenarism and violent upheaval.
Moreover, the ‘DPR’ holds one more UK citizen, John Harding, as prisoner, and threatens him with death penalty, as per BBC. He was captured in May when Ukrainian units he was fighting with at the Azovstal steelworks were forced to surrender.
Another UK man, Paul Urey, died in custody in the “DPR” due to “stress and disease” in July. Darya Morozova, the “DPR ombudsperson”, says he had been captured in April while trying to break through a roadblock. The “DPR” says Urey fought for Ukraine, and Reuters reports he was a volunteer.