In June 2017, a video emerged online of several Russian-speaking men in camouflage uniforms beating an unarmed civilian with a sledgehammer, on what appeared to be an abandoned oil field. In subsequent videos, the same men behead the already lifeless victim, hang up the corpse and set it on fire.
The gruesome footage led to media investigations including one by the Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, which placed the murder at the al-Shaer gas plant in Homs, Syria.
Journalists also identified the victim as Syrian army defector Muhammad A., and several suspects as Russian nationals and alleged members of a ‘private military company’ (PMC) called the Wagner Group. This multipurpose militia operates at the forefront of Russia’s most daring and unpopular foreign policy forays.
