A Minnesota man, Bryan Hooper Sr., was released after 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, following a recantation by the key witness who confessed to the crime, leading to the vacating of his conviction and an apology from prosecutors.
Two former convicts claiming to be ex-Wagner fighters gave interviews to a Russian human rights group, saying they killed civilians in Ukraine. One of them, Azamat Uldarov, has now recanted his claim, alleging that he was blackmailed into making it. Wagner, a private military company, is seeking the other former convict, Alexey Savichev, who claimed that his unit was ordered to kill any men 15 years old or older. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has accused a group of people, including former convicts and Federal Penitentiary Service employees, of cooperating with foreign groups to collect compromising material on convicts and former convicts.