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Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, is set to be proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK government – meaning it will be illegal to be a member or support the organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A draft order to be laid in Parliament will allow its assets to be categorised as terrorist property and seized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The home secretary said Wagner was “violent and destructive… a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said its work in Ukraine and Africa was a “threat to global security”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suella Braverman added: “Wagner’s continuing destabilising activities only continue to serve the Kremlin’s political goals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They are terrorists, plain and simple – and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wagner had played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as operating in Syria and countries in Africa including Libya and Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its fighters have been accused of a number crimes including killing and torturing Ukrainian citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2020, the US said Wagner soldiers had planted landmines around the Libyan capital, Tripoli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in July, the UK said the group<\/a> had carried out “executions and torture in Mali and the Central African Republic”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group’s future was thrown into uncertainty earlier this year when its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against Russia’s military leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prigozhin, who founded the group in 2014, died in a suspicious plane crash along with other Wagner figures on 23 August and was buried in St Petersburg<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group’s name will now be added alongside that of other proscribed organisations in the UK such as Hamas and Boko Haram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Terrorism Act 2000 gives the home secretary the power to proscribe an organisation if they believe it is concerned in terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the act, it was only possible to proscribe organisations connected to terrorism in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proscription order will make it a criminal offence to support the group – including by arranging a meetings aimed at furthering the organisation’s activities, expressing support for its aims or displaying its flag or logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Committing a proscription offence could lead to 14 years in prison or a fine of up to \u00a35,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government had come under pressure from MPs for some months to proscribe the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy urged the government to proscribe Wagner saying it was “responsible for the appalling atrocities in Ukraine and across the world”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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