Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Moroccan public push for Ukraine death sentence citizen’s release

Moroccan public push for Ukraine death sentence citizen’s release

Moroccan government silent after Moroccan-Ukrainian Brahim Saadoun was sentenced to death by Ukrainian separatists.

A death sentence against a Moroccan citizen issued by a court in a Russia-backed breakaway region of eastern Ukraine has triggered calls for his release from his birthplace, amidst a muted response from the Moroccan government.

Brahim Saadoun, who was given Ukrainian citizenship in 2020, was sentenced to death alongside two Britons last week in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) after being accused of being a mercenary.

The 21-year-old, who friends and family said had joined the Ukrainian army after the Russian invasion of the country, was formerly an aeronautics engineering student in Kyiv, where he had moved in 2019.

The United Nations has described Saadoun’s death sentence as a “war crime”.

In the only comments made by Rabat on the issue, diplomatic sources from the Moroccan embassy in Kyiv were quoted late on Monday by the kingdom’s official news outlet as saying that Saadoun was detained while wearing a Ukrainian army fatigue as a member of that country’s marine forces.

The unnamed diplomatic sources’ brief comments added that Saadoun is being held by “an entity unrecognised by the United Nations or the Moroccan kingdom”.


Despite the relative silence from the Moroccan government, Saadoun’s case has led to a reaction in his home country.

Moroccan Twitter users rallied for Saadoun’s release under the hashtag #Save_Brahim.

But, while calling for his release, some Moroccans did not support his choice to fight for the Ukrainian army.

Mohamed Ouamoussi, a Moroccan journalist, wrote: “May Allah be with his parents. A smart student who speaks five languages and was studying aeronautics. He was brainwashed and exploited to be thrown in a battlefield in which he is to have no gains nor interests in Donbas.”

Amina Bou Ayash, the head of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), an independent Moroccan entity that constitutionally has oversight over government practices, called on Monday for Moroccan authorities to intervene in Saadoun’s case.

However, she also noted that Saadoun “is a dual citizen which complicates matters especially as he is on Ukrainian soil and the citizenship acknowledged is that of the country where he resides”.

“What matters now and what is most important is to protect Brahim Saadon wherever he is, from the death sentence, as he’s a Moroccan citizen,” Bou Ayash was quoted by local media as saying.

Brahim Saadoun’s father, Taher, told the local Hespress outlet that Brahim was an excellent student and a “genius”. He argued that his son should be treated as a prisoner of war, and that he had joined Ukrainian troops as a translator and surrendered himself to Russian forces in civilian attire.

Echoing a similar stance, the Moroccan Centre for Human Rights condemned the death sentence, which it said had been issued by a “military court”, demanding that the hostage be returned to Morocco to be tried in his homeland.

The organisation also lashed out at the Moroccan government and its ministry of foreign affairs for their silence, urging the government to dispatch lawyers to support Saadoun, and to communicate with the Russian government to ensure his release.

Saadoun has not received unanimous support from his countrymen, however.

“He has learned in a region [Ukraine] with tension and conflict how to hold a rifle and fight, which poses a threat to the kingdom,” Soufiane Ben Lazaar, editor-in-chief of the Spanish-speaking Moroccan news website Maruecom, told Al Jazeera. “We should not bring him back.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×