The brother of the deceased Syrian demands that the Investigation Committee open a criminal case about the murder of his brother against Russian mercenaries who allegedly carried out an extrajudicial execution near the Al-Shaer field in Syria.
According to Novaya Gazeta, alleged militants of the Wagner PMC, who posed for a photo with the severed head of their victim in 2017, became participants in the massacre of the Syrian. When this photo appeared in the media, journalists were able to identify on it the identity of one of the execution participants, calling the name of 30-year-old Stanislav Dychko, who joined the PMC in 2016.
“Russian law provides for the obligation of the state to investigate crimes of Russian citizens committed abroad. The Investigation Committee has not yet launched an investigation into the circumstances of the murder, although all the necessary information was officially reported to the Russian authorities more than a year ago”, - the newspaper quotes the words of the lawyer Ilya Novikov, who represents the interests of the brother of the executed Syrian.
According to the applicant, the murder of his brother was carried out with particular brutality. In his statement to the UK, the Syrian asks to investigate other possible facts of war crimes by the mercenaries of the Wagner PMC.
At the end of 2020, in connection with the publication of the investigation into the execution of the Syrian, the journalists of Novaya Gazeta already appealed to the UK, but did not receive a response to their appeal, despite the fact that mercenarism and murder are criminal offenses under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Experts associate the activities of Wagner PMC, conducting military operations outside the Russian Federation (in Syria, Libya, CAR), with the interests of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, close to President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, the Kremlin publicly distances itself from its possible involvement in the activities of PMCs. Earlier, a number of Western countries imposed sanctions against Prigozhin. In particular, he is wanted in the United States for a series of attacks by Internet trolls and other crimes related to interference in the presidential election. For information that will lead to the capture of a suspect, the FBI promises a reward of $ 250,000. Prigozhin is also banned from entering the territory of a number of EU countries.