UN says Wagner Group recruits prisoners from Russian prisons
UN experts have warned that the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-affiliated mercenary organization, is “worrying” conscripting prisoners in Russian prisons through tactics that violate Human Rights and jeopardize individual freedoms.
“We are deeply concerned by the news that the members of the so-called Wagner Group visited penal institutions in various regions of Russia and offered amnesty to the prisoners who joined the Group and participated in the war in Ukraine. Their payments are monthly payments to their families,” the experts said.
The group allegedly recruits both Russian citizens and foreigners serving prison sentences in Russia through threats and intimidation, using coercive techniques, for example by preventing prisoners from talking to their families and lawyers.
“We have information that several recruits have been executed for trying to escape, and in other cases severely injured as a warning to other inmates,” the experts said. “These tactics constitute violations of Human Rights and could be war crimes,” he said.