A top European Union court on Wednesday rejected a bid by Kremlin-linked oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the alleged financier of the Wagner mercenary group, to overturn sanctions imposed over the conflict in Libya coinciding with a rights group this week calling for an investigation into the group’s activities in the country.
Prigozhin had challenged a 2020 decision to freeze his assets in the EU and to place him on a visa blacklist over the deployment of Wagner fighters to the war-torn African country.
Prigozhin claimed he had "no knowledge of an entity known as Wagner Group" and said the EU had failed to justify the move.
But the EU's General Court rejected his case and confirmed the sanctions against him.
It said the bloc had provided "specific, precise and consistent evidence demonstrating the numerous close links between Mr Prigozhin and Wagner Group."
Prigozhin, reputedly a top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also sanctioned by the EU in April 2022 over the Ukraine invasion and is blacklisted by Washington for meddling in the U.S. elections.
Shadowy outfit Wagner has been accused of deploying mercenaries with the backing of the Kremlin in hotspots, including Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali.
The EU alleged it breached an international arms embargo on Libya and that its fighters were engaged in military operations against U.N.-backed authorities.
Meanwhile, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), new data has emerged from Libyan demining groups linking mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to the use of “banned booby traps” in Libya during an offensive by east-based Libyan forces trying to capture the capital of Tripoli from rival militias.
The Wagner Group backed the offensive of the east-based forces led by putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who was also supported at the time by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. Haftar’s offensive collapsed in the spring of 2020, when Turkey and Qatar stepped up their military support to his rivals in western Libya.
Lama Fakih, HRW’s director for Mideast and North Africa, said a “transparent and international” inquiry is needed to look into the use of land mines around Tripoli.
HRW cited a tablet left on a Libyan battlefield by a Wagner mercenary that contained maps of the locations of 35 unmarked anti-personnel mines. The tablet was obtained by the BBC in early 2021. A U.N. panel of experts said earlier this week it considers the device to be authentic.
