The Swedish EU presidency wants to put Wagner on the list of terrorist organizations
Sweden, which holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, said Thursday that it is ready to add the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, accused of human rights violations in Ukraine and Africa, to the EU's list of terrorist organizations, according to Digi24.
"Sweden is ready to act to create a consensus among the EU with the aim of adding the Wagner group to the European list of terrorist organizations as soon as the legal conditions are met," Stockholm's head of diplomacy, Tobias Billström, told the newspaper Swedish Dagens Nyheter.
On Tuesday, France's National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government in Paris to "mobilise diplomatically" to have the paramilitary group included on the list in order to more effectively sanction Wagner's members and supporters, particularly on financial plan. "The Wagner group has committed atrocious abuses especially in Sudan, Mali, Syria and Ukraine," the Swedish foreign minister said in an interview with DN.
"For the group to be subject to EU sanctions against terrorist organisations, a judicial authority or an equivalent competent national authority, such as a court or a prosecutor, must decide to open an investigation against the group or charge it with a terrorist offense ", he emphasized. "It is up to the judiciary to make such a decision," said Tobias Billström.
In March, the Lithuanian Parliament passed a resolution confirming Wagner's status as a "terrorist organization". The government in Kyiv welcomed Lithuania's decision.
