CNN
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Russia pardoned a Zambian prisoner in order that they might be deployed to Ukraine, the place they died preventing for the Wagner mercenary unit, Zambia’s international affairs minister stated Friday.
Zambian nationwide Nathan Lemekhani Nyirenda was “pardoned on twenty third August, 2022 with a view to be part of the navy operation, in trade for amnesty,” the minister, Stanley Kakubo, stated in Lusaka, including that this data was supplied to him by Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Nonetheless, it seems that Lavrov additionally gave the primary indication that the Russian authorities is sanctioning the recruitment of prisoners from Russian prisons for the conflict in Ukraine. In keeping with Kakubo, “we had been knowledgeable that Russia permits for prisoners to be supplied a possibility for pardon in trade for participation within the particular navy operation.”
CNN has approached the Russian international ministry for remark.
Talking within the Zambian parliament, Kakubo stated Nyirenda’s physique had been transported to Moscow on Friday and can be repatriated to Zambia on Sunday.
Throughout the summer time, the financier of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, toured Russia’s prisons trying to find prisoners to hitch the conflict in Ukraine. In trade they might be granted amnesty on survival of a tour or a financial sum paid to their household upon their loss of life.
He was caught on video at a number of Russian prisons giving speeches to potential recruits. A CNN investigation additionally spoke with a member of a penal colony who was contemplating taking over the supply.
Talking in November on the case of Nyirenda, Prigozhin commented that he remembered the prisoner and that he died as a “hero.”
