The suit represents the first time anyone has tried to hold any member of Wagner’s group accountable for his or her activities anywhere in the world.
Wagner’s activity in Syria was moved into the spotlight after Russian independent paper Novaya Gazeta published a study in 2019 on allegations that the group’s participants were involved in the brutal murder of a Syrian man who was described as a desert from the Syrian army.
In June 2017, a two-minute clip appeared online showing several Russian-clad men wearing armor brutally hitting an unarmed man.
Two years later Novaya Gazeta received an additional film that claimed to show what happened to the man after the beating: he was tortured and beheaded, his body was burned and set on fire.
The paper also alleged that it named the man, Syrian Mohammed A., as well as one of the perpetrators, a Russian man who was identified as a member of Wagner’s private arms company. The massacre took place in northern Syria near the al-Shaer gas facility, Novaya Gazeta said at the time.
Novaya Gazeta asked Russia’s main investigative body, the Audit Committee, to open a probe into the findings but the application was rejected.
The new case, initiated by the brother of the murdered man, was submitted to the Russian authorities last week by three agencies: the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Human Rights Memorial Center in Russia.
Shortly after the Novaya Gazeta report came out, the victim’s brother was spoken to by the Syrian SCM group, whose relatives mentioned in one of the videos, stating that he was willing seek justice for the brutal death of his brother.
“To date, no court has examined Russia’s responsibility for direct military intervention and allowing the Wagner group to use force,” the Memorial Human Rights Center said in a statement.
“This is the first claim filed by a Syrian victim with the support of human rights NGOs [non-governmental organizations] to the Russian authorities in an unprecedented effort to overcome Russian immunity and bring justice to justice. ”
According to his brother, Mohammed A. returned to Syria in March 2017 from Lebanon where he worked as a construction worker, the NGOs said. Upon his return, Mohammed was captured by the Syrian army and taken to a service center near Damascus. In their last phone conversation, Mohammed told his brother that he intended to get a reprieve from the army and never heard from him again.
The objections call on the Russian Audit Committee to open an inquiry into allegations of “murder of a brutal group of people.” To date, the Committee has not commented on the request. A Kremlin spokesman said. Dmitry Peskov on Monday noted that he is aware of the media reports on the matter but referred the matter to the Audit Committee.
The Audit Committee did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.
Private arms companies are illegal under Russian law but Wagner has become increasingly prominent in advancing Russia’s foreign policy goals abroad.
“It simply came to our notice then [Russia-linked] actors are involved but the prosecution will never be prosecuted, “Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of Remembrance, told CNN.” With no investigations and no punishment, we will find this chain of impunity, which will at least slow down Russia’s history from the Chechen wars. “
Russian open source intelligence agencies, such as the Conflict Intelligence Team, which has been investigating Wagner’s activity for years, previously said the unit’s ambiguous legal status allows Russia to enjoy credit when it comes to reporting numbers of soldiers lost in the Syrian conflict as well as avoiding international responsibility.
In 2019, Putin acknowledged that there were Russian mercenaries in Syria but denied that they were in any way supported by the government, adding that they were resolving ” matters of an economic nature ”such as the exploration or sale of oil fields.
“These people are in danger of their lives and to a large extent this is also an aid in the fight against terrorism … but this is not the Russian state, not the Russian army,” he said.
CNN and other outlets reported that companies affiliated with Prigozhin have won lucrative contracts in countries where Wagner operates, such as protecting and inspecting oil and gas fields in Syria or obtaining licenses. to mine diamonds and other valuable minerals throughout Africa.