Canberra slams Russian jailing of Australian who fought for Ukraine
Australia's government said Saturday it was 'appalled' by a Russian-controlled court's 13-year penal colony sentence for an Australian man who was captured while fighting for Ukraine.
Oscar Jenkins, a 33-year-old from Melbourne, was convicted of being a 'mercenary in an armed conflict' by the court in Ukraine's Russian-occupied east Lugansk region, prosecutors said.
The former biology teacher was ordered to serve his time in a 'strict regime penal colony.'
'The Australian government is appalled at the sham trial and 13-year sentence given to Australian man Oscar Jenkins,' Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
The government has 'made clear' to Moscow that Jenkins must be treated as a prisoner of war, as a serving member of the regular Ukraine army, she said in a statement.
'Russia is obligated to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment,' the foreign minister said.
Australia had 'serious concerns' for Jenkins, she said, and was working with partners including Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross to press for his welfare and release.
Russia and its eastern Ukrainian proxies consider foreigners traveling to fight in Ukraine as 'mercenaries.'
This enables them to prosecute the fighters criminally, rather than treating them as captured prisoners of war with protections and rights under the Geneva Convention.
Russia-installed prosecutors said Friday that Jenkins 'took part in combat operations against Russian military personnel between March and December 2024.'
They posted a video showing Jenkins standing in a courtroom behind a glass cage, his hands behind his back and his expression despondent.
Russian forces captured Jenkins in December 2024.
That same month, he appeared in a video shared by a Russian military blogger showing him being roughly interrogated and slapped in the face.
He was then believed to have been killed in captivity, until Russia confirmed he was alive.
A later video showed him undergoing a medical examination, with his captors heard joking in the background that his blood pressure showed 'he wasn't dead.'
Australia's government said it was providing consular support to Jenkins' family.
Australia opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, condemning it as illegal and immoral.
Ties with Moscow had already been damaged by the July 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 by a Russian-made missile over eastern Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of 298 people aboard including 38 Australians.
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