LUXEMBOURG (CN) — The European Union's second-highest court on Wednesday upheld sanctions against the suspected leader of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, a man also widely known as "Putin's chef."
The European General Court found that the 2020 sanctions imposed on Yevgeny Prigozhin by the Council of the European Union for financing mercenaries who committed human rights abuses in Libya were legally sound, citing “specific, precise and consistent evidence” of his involvement.
The 60-year-old Russian oligarch, who first made his fortune in the food service industry, denied he had any knowledge of “an entity known as Wagner Group.” The private military company serves as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s de facto army and has been connected to atrocities in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali. It was founded in 2014 and came to prominence supporting Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine.
Prigozhin – dubbed “Putin’s chef” because he owns many of the restaurants where the Russian president takes visiting foreign dignitaries – argued there was no connection between his business interests and atrocities committed in Libya following the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Civil war broke out during the Arab Spring, a conflict that has left an estimated 1,000 people dead and nearly a million displaced. The EU has now imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on more than 50 people and companies involved in the ongoing conflict.
The General Court, however, found that there was more than sufficient evidence to show that Wagner Group was involved in military operations in the northern African country, from deploying sniper teams to participating in combat.
“The evidence pack contained sufficient details, accompanied by credible information, that the activities of Wagner Group, which were sufficiently identified, threatened peace, security and stability in Libya,” the Fifth Chamber wrote in its ruling.
This isn’t Prigozhin's only recent legal loss. In May, a court in the United Kingdom rejected his complaint that he was defamed by tweets posted by the founder of the investigative journalist organization Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins. Higgins claimed on Twitter that Prigozhin used Wagner Group to harass and discredit journalists looking into the death of three Russian reporters killed in the Central African Republic in 2018. The trio were investigating the group's activities in the country when they were ambushed and killed near the capital, Bangui. In its ruling, the General Court cited a Bellingcat article connecting Wagner Group to activities in Libya.
Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, the EU has imposed sanctions on a number of Russian officials connected to the Kremlin, including Prigozhin. The bloc included him among a number of officials cited for “undermining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine” in April.
Though the exact number is unknown, many of Putin’s allies have launched legal challenges to the sanctions before the EU court, including businessman Roman Abramovich, who filed his appeal last week. He sold the English soccer club Chelsea F.C. in March because of the situation in Ukraine. The court generally sides with the EU in appeals over sanctions.
Prigozhin now has two months to appeal the General Court's decision to the EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice.
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