The Treasury is reviewing its processes after reports it helped the head of Russia's notorious mercenary Wagner Group circumvent UK sanctions to take a British journalist to court
Labour accused the government of giving a"waiver for a warlord" to pursue legal action, which it said was aimed at intimidating critics of Mr Prigozhin.
"It would not be appropriate to break this custom even in a case as serious as this where there is obviously public interest." He added that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was chancellor at the time, had no part in considering whether Mr Prigozhin should be granted permission.Huge losses for Russian mercenaries
Alicia Kearns, Conservative chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the government to"commit to looking at whether we need to introduce ministerial oversight" on the process. Mr Cartlidge replied:"I do think that the right to legal representation is a fundamental tenet of our democracy and that can mean that individuals and persons who we - and I'm not commenting on the specific case - but it can mean that individuals and persons who we find distasteful therefore have a right to legal representation.
"We sanctioned Prigozhin because he was operating 'a deniable military capability for the Russian state'," Mr Byrne told the Commons.
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