Russian authorities have confirmed an Australian man fighting in Ukraine has been sentenced in absentia to 14 years’ jail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Russian embassy in Australia says Kallen Benjamin Lewis was found guilty by a court, based on evidence collected by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n
Mr Lewis is accused of breaching Russia’s criminal code by participating as a mercenary in an armed conflict.<\/p>\n
Mr Lewis is understood to have been in Ukraine since 2022.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is understood Kallen Benjamin Lewis has been in Ukraine since 2022. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The Russian embassy said the court established that in October 2023, Mr Lewis joined a paramilitary unit, within the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The embassy said he received training, a firearm and ammunition as well as a uniform.<\/p>\n
The court findings said that, while in the Donetsk region, Mr Lewis was paid to take part in combat operations against Russian armed forces.<\/p>\n
The embassy said that in his absence he had been sentenced to 14 years’ jail in a maximum security prison, and placed on the international wanted list.<\/p>\n
Russia has convicted and sentenced others caught up in the war without their presence in court, including a British man fighting for Ukraine, who was sentenced in absentia to six years’ jail this week.<\/p>\n
The man was accused of a similar offence, and was also put on the international wanted list.<\/p>\n
Australian authorities continue to advise people not to travel to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the ongoing invasion by Russia meant it was very difficult to provide consular assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian authorities have confirmed an Australian man fighting in Ukraine has been sentenced in absentia to 14 years’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[159148,3852,87189,3851,45416,159147,332,72786,23778,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-479531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-14-years","9":"tag-act","10":"tag-australian","11":"tag-canberra","12":"tag-jail","13":"tag-kallen-lewis","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-sentenced","16":"tag-soldier","17":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115330807529428474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}