Syria: NGOs file landmark case against Russian Wagner Group

Three prominent advocacy groups from France, Russia and Syria file criminal complaint over 2017 beheading of Syrian man.

Three NGOs have filed a legal case in Moscow against Russian private military contractor Wagner over the torture of a detainee in Syria, aiming to hold to account a murky fighting force with links to the Kremlin. The legal push against Wagner Group on Monday follows a wave of torture-related cases in Europe against officials of the Syrian regime a decade into a punishing war whose tide was turned by Moscow’s military intervention in 2015. Three prominent advocacy groups from France, Russia and Syria filed the criminal complaint against alleged members of the contractor outfit over the 2017 beheading of a man believed to have deserted from the Syrian army.