UK Ambassador hands Russia request for suspect's extradition
The British ambassador today handed Russian authorities a request for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, the suspect in the killing of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a British Embassy spokesperson said.
Russian officials have said they would not extradite Lugovoi. British Ambassador Anthony Brenton delivered documents requesting Lugovoi’s extradition to the Foreign Ministry in the morning, the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
The Foreign Ministry and the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said they could not immediately comment, but the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed official at the Prosecutor General’s Office as saying prosecutors had received the documents.
The Crown Prosecution Service said last week that it had enough evidence to charge former Russian security agent Lugovoi with the murder of Litvinenko, and on Friday said it had formally requested his extradition.
Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic who was granted asylum in Britain, died in London hospital on November 23 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210.
He had met with Lugovoi and two other Russians, Dmitry Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, on November 1 at a London hotel hours before he fell ill.
