Ex-spy to be charged with Litvinenko murder
An ex-KGB agent is to be charged in connection with the murder of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, the British Crown Prosecution Service said today.
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Moscow-based Andrei Lugovoy, although there is no extradition treaty with Russia.
Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald said the case was “clearly in the public interest”.
The full CPS charge is that Lugovoy murdered Mr Litvinenko on November 23, 2006.
Mr Litvinenko died in hospital in London after being poisoned with the radioactive agent Polonium-210.
The former KGB officer was a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin regime and had been granted political asylum in the UK.
Mr McDonald said Mr Litvinenko died of “acute radiation injury” after ingesting a lethal dose of Polonium.
“During his difficult, fatal illness and following his death, the Metropolitan Police Service in London conducted a careful investigation into how this had happened,” he said.
“Among the people of interest to police in this inquiry was a Russian citizen named Andrey Lugovoy.”
Mr McDonald said the Metropolitan Police had conducted a “careful investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the death.
The CPS received a file of evidence from the Met in late January 2007 to allow it to make a decision.
Extradition is thought to be unlikely after Britain refused to send exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky back to the Russian authorities.
