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Poison: KGB men to face Litvinenko
murder charges
CHRISTOPHER
LEAKE
UK Daily Mail
Sunday April 22, 2007
Scotland Yard detectives are to issue arrest warrants against
three former KGB officers suspected of poisoning ex-Russian spy
Alexander Litvinenko.
Police have told sources close to Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina
that they intend to lay charges of murder and poisoning against
the men, who met the victim three weeks before his death in London.
The move will damage the already strained relationship between
Downing Street and the Kremlin, which is almost certain to block
any request for the men's arrest and extradition.
Warrants are expected to be issued against Andrei Lugovoy, Dmitri
Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko within the next few weeks.
All three former agents have vehemently protested their innocence
of any involvement in the murder plot. They all claim that they,
too, were contaminated with the deadly radioactive material polonium-210
which poisoned Mr Litvinenko, a strong critic of President Vladimir
Putin's regime.
Mr Putin's government is already furious with Tony Blair for granting
political asylum to billionaire dissident Boris Berezovsky, who
has continued to demand the overthrow of the Russian leader from
his UK base.
Tensions increased further on Friday when EU Trade Commissioner
Peter Mandelson warned that relations with Moscow contained 'a level
of misunderstanding, or even mistrust, we have not seen since the
end of the Cold War'.
Forty-three-year-old Mr Litvinenko, himself a former KGB officer
who had been granted political asylum to live in Britain, suffered
a horrific death in a London hospital on November 23 last year after
poison caused his hair to drop out and his vital organs to close
down.
Mr Litvinenko had previously met the three prime suspects - who
are now all wealthy businessmen based in Moscow - at the Millennium
Hotel in Piccadilly and a nearby sushi bar.
The Metropolitan Police refused to comment on the murder inquiry,
but Litvinenko family sources told The Mail on Sunday police had
enough evidence to bring charges 'within three weeks'.
Britain has no extradition treaty with Russia, meaning that any
trial would most probably have to be held in Moscow with the co-operation
of the authorities there.
The Russians want Mr Berezovsky to face trial for calling last
week for a revolution to overthrow President Putin and have twice
demanded his extradition from Britain.
Mr Berezovsky, who has several substantial homes in the UK, said
during a business trip to Israel last week: "I have no doubt
that my extradition from Britain is impossible. However much the
Russian prosecutors would want it, I didn't break Russian or British
laws."
When asked about British unease over his comments on toppling President
Putin, Mr Berezovsky said: "I did not get political asylum
in Britain just to shut up." And, repeating earlier attacks
on Mr Putin, whom he accused of corruption before escaping Russia,
Mr Berezovsky added: "Any other way of changing this anti-constitutional
regime, except for a coercive one which includes revolution, is
impossible.
"I repeat it once again. And I am not scared at all that as
a result I can be extradited."
Mrs Litvinenko, 44, who called her late husband by his pet name
"Sasha', and her 12-year-old son Anatoly have been under police
protection at a secret address ever since her husband's death.
Before he died, her husband blamed Mr Putin and his regime for
his murder, a claim strongly denied by the Kremlin.
In December, nine Scotland Yard detectives flew to Moscow as part
of their investigation. They were not allowed to interview Mr Lugovoy
or Mr Kovtun directly, although they were present when Russian police
officers interviewed them. They were not granted any access to Mr
Sokolenko.
Senior Russian prosecutor Konstantin Nikonov told The Mail on Sunday
last night: "We have no information yet that the British authorities
have requested moves to bring charges against Mr Lugovoy, Mr Kovtun
and Mr Sokolenko."
The Crown Prosecution Service said no decisions had been taken
about charges in the Litvinenko case.
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