Moroccan sentenced to death is a victim of Russian ‘games’, friends say

Brahim Saadoun is a much-loved marine on active duty, they insist, and not a mercenary, as court in Donetsk claims

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While Russia claims that Brahim Saadoun was a foreign fighter in Ukraine, the 21-year-old Moroccan sentenced to death alongside two Britons last week had spent years making the country his home.

Friends and family of Saadoun have called for his freedom, telling the Guardian he was an active-duty marine and not a mercenary as claimed by Russian media and pro-Russia officials in eastern Ukraine who announced the sentence.