UK court convicts 3 men over arson attack authorities say was organized by Russian intelligence

LONDON (AP) — A British jury convicted three men on Tuesday of arson in an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing equipment destined for Ukraine. Authorities said Russian intelligence was behind the plot.

Prosecutors said the March 20, 2024, attack was planned by agents of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence. The British government has deemed Wagner a terrorist organization.

The prosecution said Wagner used British intermediaries to recruit the men to target an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, where generators and StarLink satellite equipment bound for Ukraine were being stored. The StarLinks are frequently used by Ukraine’s military in fending off Russia’s invasion.

Authorities said the arson was part of a campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials blame on Moscow and its proxies.

A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court found Jakeem Rose, 23; Ugnius Asmena, 20; and Nii Mensah, 23 guilty of aggravated arson.

A fourth man, Paul English, 61, was acquitted. English told police that while he was paid to drive the others, he knew nothing about the fire.

The fire caused around 1 million pounds ($1.35 million) worth of damage. Prosecutors said the attack was orchestrated by Dylan Earl, 21, and Jake Reeves, 23, who pleaded guilty to aggravated arson on behalf of the Wagner Group before the trial started. They also pleaded guilty to offenses under the U.K.’s National Security Act 2023.

Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Command at London’s Metropolitan Police, said the case was a “clear example of an organization linked to the Russian state using ‘proxies’, in this case British men, to carry out very serious criminal activity in this country.”

He said Earl and Reeves “willingly acted as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state,” adding that it was “only by good fortune nobody was seriously injured or worse.”

Earl also admitted to plotting to set fire to a wine shop and a restaurant in the upmarket London neighborhood of Mayfair as well as plans to kidnap their owner, Evgeny Chichvarkin.

Chichvarkin, an exiled Russian tycoon who has been vocal in his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, told the court in a written statement that he is considered “a key enemy of the Russian state and received daily death threats.”

Two other men were on trial in connection with the arson and related plots. Ashton Evans, 20, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to the Mayfair plot but cleared of failing to tell authorities about the warehouse arson. Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 23, was cleared of both.

Jurors were shown evidence from CCTV cameras and of the arson Mensah filmed on his phone, along with a message he sent Earl later saying: “Bro lol it’s on the news.”

They were also shown hundreds of messages among the men and between Earl and a Russian recruiter.

Earl was the first person to be charged under the National Security Act, which created new measures to combat espionage, political interference and benefiting from foreign intelligence services.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said the convicted defendants would be sentenced in the fall.

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Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed to this story.