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The ju judge left to consider their verdict in the trial of six men accused of participating in an arson attack on London businesses, allegedly ordered by the Kremlin-backed Wagner Mercinary Group.
The fire tore a warehouse in East London last March and destroyed an Oddysey facility that shipped humanitarian aid and communications equipment, including the Starlink satellite terminal, to Ukraine.
In putting together the case, Judge Bobby Cheema Grub said the attack instructions came through Telegram, a Russian social media platform, from users under the Privet Bot on the Handle. The account was believed to have ties to the Russian intelligence agency, the court heard.
The old Bailey prosecutors in London have alleged that the attacks were organized “at the request of the Wagner Group” since the trial began in June, and Kremlin’s proxy forces have been banned in the UK as a terrorist organization.
Two of the accused, Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 23, and Ashton Evans, 20, have been accused of not disclosing information about the terrorist acts, but their defense argued that they didn’t know who was behind the surgery.
The remaining four – Paul English, 61, Nii Koho Mensa, 23, Jakem Rose, 23, Unius Asmena, 20, faces allegedly aggravated arson charges they have denied. The trial is ongoing.
The conspiracy was introduced to coordinate last year with 21-year-old British man Dylan Earle, who pleaded guilty to a crime under the UK’s new national security laws, and cracking down on hostile foreign activities, prosecutors said.
Jake Reeves, 24, another man involved in the surgery, pleaded guilty to accepting payments from a foreign intelligence agency.
The GRU, the Russian military intelligence reporting unit, has a long history of “recruiting low-level individuals to commit sabotage in foreign countries during wartime,” said Judge Cheema Grub.
“Our parents and grandparents would have had simple terms for what Earl and Reeves did — treason,” she added.
The arson attack in Leighton is said to be one of a series of planned operations, including another plot targeting a high-end hedonistic wine shop and hike restaurant in Mayfair, London.
Prosecutors said they were collectively worth more than £30 million at the time the plot was made.
The defense argued that the man on trial was unaware of the geopolitical motivations behind the case, suggesting that he may have been misled by organizers.
The defendant was caught up in surveillance footage at the scene of the fire and exchanged guilty messages before and after the incident.
“This appears to have been a mission that was completely unprepared and somewhat unconsidered,” Mensa’s defense attorney Alan Kent KC said in a final statement. “This wasn’t a professional job, but it was actually completely amateur.”
