KGB man charged in spy’s murder
KGB man charged in spy’s murder | NEWS.com.au
BRITISH prosecutors will charge ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy with the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London last year after being poisoned with radioactive polonium.
The Crown Prosecution Service has said there is enough evidence to charge Mr Lugovoy and seek his extradition over the death of Mr Litvinenko, who died an agonising death over several weeks after being poisoned with Polonium 210.
“I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoy with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning,” CPS head Ken Macdonald said.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted Mr Lugovoy’s lawyer as saying he had not received “any written or oral notification that charges have been brought”.
There was no immediate official reaction from Moscow, but a report from Russia quoting an unnamed legal source said the Kremlin would not co-operate.
Russia’s constitution does not allow for the extradition of its citizens. Nevertheless, Britain’s Foreign Secretary has told Russia’s ambassador that “full co-operation” is expected.
“This was a serious crime. We are seeking and expect full co-operation from the Russian authorities in bringing the perpetrator to face British justice,” Margaret Beckett has said.
Marina Litvinenko, the ex-spy’s widow, has said she is “anxious” for justice to be done.
Litvinenko blamed Putin
In a letter dictated on his hospital deathbed, Mr Litvinenko, who had acquired British citizenship weeks before he was poisoned, accused the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin of his murder.
Moscow dismissed the charge as ridiculous. It has launched its own investigation into Mr Litvinenko’s death and denies that its security services played any part.
Mr Litvinenko met Mr Lugovoy and another Russian businessman, Dmitry Kovtun in the Pine Bar of London’s Millennium Hotel on November 1 last year, and within hours had fallen seriously ill.
Investigators later found traces of polonium at the hotel and a number of staff tested positive for low level radiation contamination.
Mr Litvinenko died in a London hospital on November 23.
‘Not guilty’
In December, nine British detectives flew to Moscow. They were not allowed to interview Lugovoy or Mr Kovtun directly, but they were present when Russian police officers questioned them.
Mr Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard who later worked as head of security for London-based tycoon Boris Berezovsky, has previously laughed off reports that Britain would seek his extradition.
He has denied killing Mr Litvinenko and lashed out at British media for demonising him.
Mr Litvinenko’s murder and Mr Berezovsky’s calls to overthrow President Vladimir Putin have plunged relations between the countries to a post-Cold War low.
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