The US Justice Minister said on Wednesday that the head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group, Evgeny Prigokhine, was “a war criminal.” “I think we have more than enough evidence to back up my sentiments,” Merrick Garland said during a Senate hearing.
The Wagner group “is responsible for attacks against Ukrainians in the Donbass, including the use of prisoners from Russian camps as cannon fodder,” said Democratic President Joe Biden’s minister.
“What they are doing is unimaginable and we must do everything possible to prevent them,” he said, vowing to help Ukrainian justice investigate these crimes.
Investigation for “war crimes”
The General Prosecutor of Ukraine, Andriï Kostine, recently announced the opening of a “war crimes” investigation against Evgeny Prigokhine.
The 61-year-old businessman, who made his fortune in the restaurant industry, recently admitted to having founded the Wagner group in 2014 but also to having created a “troll farm” to carry out propaganda campaigns on the internet. He was also charged in 2018 in the United States for interference in the 2016 elections.
criminal organization
The Wagner group has been designated by the United States as a transnational international criminal organization, just like the Italian or Japanese mafias, and elected members of Congress are pressing for it to now be classified as a “terrorist group.”
During his hearing, Merrick Garland also said the United States “supported” European efforts in The Hague, where an “international coordination center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression” is due to begin work in the summer.
“Regarding the creation of a special court, there are concerns we need to take into account about how this could affect our own troops,” he added, however.
Source: BFM TV
