VLADIMIR Putin wants to execute the suspect Moscow terrorists – but they may not make it out of prison alive, a Brit prisoner of war said.
Russia was rocked by the Crocus City Hall massacre last month as four alleged terrorists gunned down 137 innocent civilians and set fire to the building.
Chris EadesFormer British soldier Shaun Pinner was captured in Ukraine and held in a Russian jail[/caption]
Dalerdzhon Mirzoye, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall terror attack, appeared in court battered and bruised – still wearing a plastic bag used for torture around his neckReuters
Russian security forces electrocuted one of the suspects, Shamsuddin Fariddun, on his genitals during interrogationEast2West
AFPThe fourth suspect who was captured, Muhammadsobir Fayzov, 19, was brought into court in a wheelchair[/caption]
Footage soon emerged of the quartet being captured and brutally tortured as punishment for their alleged crimes.
Bruised, beaten and bloody, they appeared in court as a shell of their former selves – with one even wheeled in due to his inability to walk and another with his ear cut off.
Putin is determined to bring back the death penalty – and the four suspected terrorists are increasingly likely to be the first on the list.
But that’s only if his brutal Russian prison guards don’t beat them to it first and torture them to death, according to Shaun Pinner, a man who knows all too well of their capabilities.
Pinner was held in a hellhole Russian jail after being captured while fighting for Ukraine in 2022.
On Friday (April 12), he won a landmark legal case against Putin after a judge accepted he was inhumanely treated during his detention as a prisoner of war (PoW) in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Reflecting on those harrowing experiences, however, he revealed the horrors the four alleged terrorists are likely to endure.
Pinner told The Sun: “On top of being electrocuted, I was tasered, beaten, pistol-whipped, mock-executed – all the stuff you don’t see.
“They’ll be getting that as well. That’s what they do.
“Once they get them into the prison they’ll starve them, and it won’t end at least until they’re convicted. Then it might ease up a bit.
“But they’ll continue to torture them to get them confess to their crimes.”
Pinner, a former British soldier and Ukrainian Marine, faced a number of beatings and was even stabbed in the leg by Russian soldiers during his time in jail.
But it was the unpredictability of Russian prison guards that left him doubtful over the alleged terrorists’ chances of survival.
“It’s going to be extremely hard for them and I don’t expect all of them to make it through,” he said.
“The unpredictability of the prison guards is another thing, they’re lawless.
“They can get drunk one night and come in and just start smashing you around.
“It’s just about getting through the days without getting injured, that’s the key.”
You’ll see the state of them when they’re next in court and how badly they’ve been beaten
Shaun Pinner
Those who have made it out the other side, including Pinner himself, have often been exposed to one of the most inhumane torture methods – electrocution.
Russian officers are renowned for bringing out an old field phone, charging it up until it generates a current and then wiring it up to the victim.
For one of the suspected terrorists, an eye-watering image emerged of him with electrical wires attached to his genitals.
There are various names for the torture technique – with many referring to it as “Calling Putin” or “Calling Zelensky”.
While Pinner was lucky to avoid the agonising experience, he was still electrocuted on his ears and fingertips, describing the pain as “excruciating”.
He recalled how it caused his legs to almost double in size.
EPAShaun Pinner, right, with fellow Brit Aiden Aslin, left, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim, centre, appear in court in June 2022 in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine[/caption]
APSaidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, one of the suspects, had a large bandage on his head in court after reportedly having his ear cut off[/caption]
GettyFarridun entered court with a heavily swollen face[/caption]
East2WestA video also emerged of one of Fariddun being detained with his hands tied behind his back[/caption]
East2WestFariddun pictured being led to be interrogation on March 24[/caption]
Russian investigators escorting a detained suspectEPA
EPAVladimir Putin has ramped up efforts to bring back the death penalty after the Moscow terrorist attack[/caption]
And he expects the alleged Moscow shooters to experience similar treatment.
“They’ve got a field phone, which is a brown box with a phone on the top that has a bell, and they wind it up until it generates an electrical current that rattles a bell at the other end,” Pinner said.
“They got me three or four times with it, it’s really powerful.
“The first time just leaves you dribbling and all your body relaxes, but once you have the electric shocks your legs inflate – mine were huge the next morning and I couldn’t walk because of it.
“I was bleeding from the capillaries where the current had gone right through me, so my legs looked twice the size.”
Another of the men, Mirzoye, appeared in court with a blue plastic bag tied around his neck, often used for asphyxiation.
“The plastic bag around his head is so systematic,” Pinner explained. “If they want to inflict a bit of torture they can cut off your air supply quite quickly by pulling the bag in around your face.
“You can’t see anything, it’s very hot and sweaty, there’s no breathing holes.”
The four men accused of staging the terrorist attack are being held in pre-trial custody until May 22.
It will have been two months since they allegedly unleashed hell on Crocus City Hall.
And Pinner expects them to look even worse than they did during their initial court appearance.
“They’ll be going through the most uncomfortable time,” he said, recalling his own experiences.
Who is Shaun Pinner?
SHAUN Pinner hit the headlines in 2022 when he was captured by Russian soldiers and sentenced to death.
The former British Army soldier had spent nine years in the Royal Anglian Regiment, boasting a spotless record, before joining the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2018.
A contracted fighter, he fought during the Russian invasion of Ukraine but was captured by opposition forces during the siege of Mariupol in April 2022.
Following weeks of torture at the hands of Russian soldiers, Pinner was eventually sentenced to death on June 9, 2022.
A show trial by the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed statelet Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) determined Pinner had been acting as a “mercenary” for Ukraine.
Being a Ukrainian Marine, however, Pinner was legally a protected person under the Geneva Conventions as a prisoner of war.
He appealed against his death sentence on June 29, 2022, requesting for it to be changed to life imprisonment.
The following day, the European Court of Human Rights told Russia to ensure that the death penalty is not carried out on Pinner and fellow prisoner Aiden Aslin.
After months in Russian captivity, Pinner was eventually released in a prisoner exchange in September 2022.
Three months later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Pinner the state ‘Order of Courage, 3rd Degree’ for “selfless acts in the defence and sovereignty of Ukraine”.
“You’ll see the state of them when they’re next in court and how badly they’ve been beaten.
“I went three or four days without food sometimes so they could also look quite skinny and gaunt.
“They’re going to be in really poor condition.”
Pinner said they are likely to be kept in a secure so-called black site – a clandestine detention centre where prisoners are often mistreated and murdered – or, “at the very best”, a transition prison.
“They’ll be sitting in one of those getting it everyday,” he said.
“No food, beatings – the lot.”
ISIS claimed responsibility outright for the concert hall massacre in March.
And the terror suspects gave false confessions about orders received from Ukraine after enduring sick torture.
All four were splashed on state TV delivering a similar “confession” about orders they’d been given.
They told FSB interrogators that a mysterious man called Saifullo had ordered the attack, ordering them to flee to Ukraine for payment afterwards.
He supposedly promised them over £8,500 for the job once they crossed the border.
Their bogus confessions added to suspicions that Putin orchestrated the attack in order to further his own sick agenda against Ukraine.
APBrit Shaun sits behind bars in a courtroom in Donetsk in June, 2022[/caption]
ReutersShaun Pinner pictured in footage released by Russian state TV after he was captured[/caption]
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