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Tory MP grills government over decision to let warlord sue journalist

Conservative chair of Foreign Affairs Committee says she’s “aghast” and “appalled” at “shameful” granting of Prigozhin licence

By Jim Fitzpatrick
Tory MP grills government over decision to let warlord sue journalist
Warlord Prigozhin: committee chair says they have questions on government role in licences
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The government has “many more questions” to answer about its role in granting a sanctioned Russian warlord permission to sue a British journalist, the Conservative chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee said yesterday.

Last month openDemocracy revealed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary army, circumvented UK sanctions with a government licence that let him hire London lawyers to sue Eliot Higgins of investigative website Bellingcat in 2021.

Speaking during a Westminster hearing on Prigozhin’s Wagner group, Tory MP Alicia Kearns said her committee was “aghast” at the treatment of Eliot Higgins and “would never want to see such shameful practices again”.

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