The British government will declare the Wagner Group a terrorist organization, meaning it is illegal to be a member of or support the group, the British public broadcaster BBC reported on Wednesday.
For violating the country’s anti-terrorism law, the suspects could face up to 14 years in prison or fines of up to £5,000.
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the Wagner group is “violent and destructive” but also “a Russian military tool of [o Presidente] Vladimir Putin”, whose work in Ukraine and Africa poses a “threat to global security”.
Braverman added that the “The continued destabilizing activities of the Wagner Group continue to serve the Kremlin’s political objectives”: “They are terrorists, pure and simple, and this prohibition order makes that clear in law.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy of the opposition Labor party welcomed the bill months after urging the government to ban the group of mercenaries as “responsible for atrocities in Ukraine and globally”.
“The bill is long overdue, but we are pleased that the government has finally taken action. The government must now insist that a special court be set up to prosecute people [Vladimir] Putin for the crime of aggression”Lammy responded.
Wagner group militiamen involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Syria and African countries such as Mali, have been charged with a range of crimes, including the murder and torture of civilians.
Source: DN
