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EU Court Rejects Appeal by Alleged Financier of Wagner Group in Libya

Wagner Group planes at a military base in Libya. (AFRICOM)
Wagner Group planes at a military base in Libya. (AFRICOM)
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EU Court Rejects Appeal by Alleged Financier of Wagner Group in Libya

Wagner Group planes at a military base in Libya. (AFRICOM)
Wagner Group planes at a military base in Libya. (AFRICOM)

A top EU court on Wednesday rejected a bid by Kremlin-linked oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, alleged financier of the Wagner mercenary group, to overturn sanctions imposed over the conflict in Libya.

Prigozhin, 61, had challenged a 2020 decision to freeze his assets in the European Union and to place him on a visa blacklist over the deployment of Wagner fighters to the war-torn north African country, AFP reported.

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 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 US elections, AFP added.

Shadowy outfit Wagner has been accused of deploying mercenaries with the backing of the Kremlin in hotspots, including Ukraine, Syria, Libya, 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 UN-backed authorities.

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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.
Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry officials from five countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the Syrian population.
Going into the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights of Christians and other minorities under Syria’s new de facto authorities of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HT.
“The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That’s why I’m going there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the international situation,” Tajani said.
Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible changes to its sanctions on Syria. “It’s an issue that should be discussed because Assad isn’t there anymore, it’s a new situation, and I think that the encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged,” he said.
Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the US, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.
HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.
The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian opposition leader whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.
Syria’s new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of insurgents.