The UK government will declare the Wagner group a terrorist organization. With this formalization, being a member or even supporting the group becomes a violation of the anti-terrorism law.
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The UK government will declare the Wagner Group a terrorist organization, meaning it will be illegal to be a member of or support the group, Britain’s public broadcaster BBC reported on Wednesday.
By violating the country’s anti-terrorism law, the defendants could face up to 14 years in prison either fines of up to five thousand pounds sterling pounds (more than 5,850 euros).
UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the Wagner Group is “violent and destructive”as well as “a military instrument from Russia from [o Presidente] Vladimir Putin”, whose work in Ukraine and Africa is a “threat to global security.
Braverman added that the “ongoing destabilizing activities of the Wagner Group Continue to serve the political goals of the Kremlin.“: “They are terrorists, pure and simple, and this prohibition order makes it clear in the law.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy of the opposition Labor Party welcomed the bill, months after urging the government to ban mercenary group for being “responsible for atrocities in Ukraine and around the world.”
“The bill is long overdue, but we are delighted that the Government has finally acted. The government must now push for the creation of a special court to prosecute [Vladimir] Putin for the crime of aggression”, Lammy reacted.
Wagner Group militiamen implicated in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Syria and African countries such as Mali, have been charged with a range of offences, including the murder and torture of civilians.
Source: Observadora
