Wagner boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin faces lawsuit over extrajudicial killings in Libya

Kremlin-linked paramilitary company PMC Wagner's founder, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, faces a lawsuit which was filed on July 18, Tuesday by a Libyan national who claims that he had escaped summary execution by the fighters of the mercenaries group. According to the emerging reports, the suit was brought to a court in Washington that mentioned the PMC Wagner's boss as the defendant. The mercenaries group that has been operating under the rubric of Russian paramilitary contractors, has been accused of extrajudicial killings in the southern region of the Libyan capital Tripoli. 

The lawsuit brought by a survivor to the court states that the Wagner mercenaries stationed in Libya were directly involved in the brutal murder of a family in the year 2019. The members of the said family were detained by the Wagner mercenaries without any explanation, the Libyan national Mohammed Aboujaylah Ali Anbees, the plaintiff in the lawsuit said. He claims that at least two Wagner mercenaries killed his father, brother and brother-in-law in what he described as the "drunken fire with AK-47 rifles." 

Wagner commander with callsign 'Vakha' killed by Ukrainian sniper 

Last month, Wagner's most notorious commander accused of crimes against the civilians and prisoners in Libya, Vladimir Andonov, 44, was shot by a Ukrainian sniper near Kharkiv, according to the newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets. Death of Andonov dubbed famously as "The Executioner", with a callsign “Vakha" or  "the volunteer from Buryatia," was confirmed by Zhambal-Zhamso Zhanaev, the head of Russia's Trans-Baikal Territory in Buryatia where "Vakha" resided. He came to Ukraine in 2014 with the unit that was assigned the task to "liberate" the town of Logvinovo. He appeared in an interview in 2015, boasting that he had left "no survivors among the "dills," using a Russian slur for the Ukrainians. 

Wagner group's mercenaries sit atop armoured tank in Rostov-on-Don in Russia. Credit: AP

Wagner PMC mercenaries are renowned for their notoriety, exploitation of mineral resources, and human rights abuses across the Mideast region in Syria, Libya, and Sudan. Since 2015, Wagner mercenaries have remained active in the strife-ridden Syria, where the regime of President Bashar-al-Assad is backed by Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Shortly after Wagner's armed mercenaries declared rebellion against Russia's military leadership in what was described as a failed coup by Putin in a state address, soldiers of Russia's armed forces detained the head of the Wagner unit in As Suwayda, southern Syria and three “high-ranking commanders” at the Khmeimim Air Base, according to Saudi Arabian TV broadcaster Al-Hadath.

Wagner fighters in the Syrian region. Credit: Arab Center Washington DC. 

A joint raid was conducted by Russian military police and Syrian intelligence officers as Progozhin's mercenaries took control of Russia's Southern military command on Rostov-on-Don. Russia's military police also raided Wagner offices across Syrian territory--including Deir ez-Zur, Hama, and Damascus and rounded up the Wagner fighters and their recruiters.

Wagner's Telegram channel later denied reports of raids in Syria as “untrue."  Istanbul-based Syrian analyst, Waiel Olwan, told Al-Hadath that Russia's Army conducted the Syrian raids as a “precautionary measure" as Wagner fighters marched towards Moscow during their mutiny. A surprise visit was also reportedly made by Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergey Vershinin to Damascus where he asked Putin's ally Assad to not let any Wagner mercenaries exit the country without Russia's knowledge.