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| Alexander Litvinenko death gives rise to issues of ‘utmost gravity’ | Alexander Litvinenko death gives rise to issues of ‘utmost gravity’ |
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| The killing of Alexander Litvinenko gives rise to issues of the “utmost gravity” which have attracted “worldwide interest and concern”, the chairman of the public inquiry into his death has said. | The killing of Alexander Litvinenko gives rise to issues of the “utmost gravity” which have attracted “worldwide interest and concern”, the chairman of the public inquiry into his death has said. |
| Opening the inquiry on Tuesday, more than eight years after the Russian dissident was murdered in London, Sir Robert Owen vowed to carry out “a full and independent inquiry into the circumstances of the death of Alexander Litvinenko”. | Opening the inquiry on Tuesday, more than eight years after the Russian dissident was murdered in London, Sir Robert Owen vowed to carry out “a full and independent inquiry into the circumstances of the death of Alexander Litvinenko”. |
| Owen has told previous hearings that he has seen evidence which amounts to a “prima facie case” that Litvinenko was murdered by the Russian state. | Owen has told previous hearings that he has seen evidence which amounts to a “prima facie case” that Litvinenko was murdered by the Russian state. |
| He would consider evidence relating to this allegation, he said, but confirmed that it would be heard in closed session because of security sensitivities. | He would consider evidence relating to this allegation, he said, but confirmed that it would be heard in closed session because of security sensitivities. |
| The former Russian secret service agent died 22 days after ingesting the rare isotope polonium-210. The Crown Prosecution Service has sought to prosecute two Russian men, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, over the murder, but Russia has refused their extradition. Litvinenko met with both men on the day of his poisoning in a London hotel. Both men deny involvement. | The former Russian secret service agent died 22 days after ingesting the rare isotope polonium-210. The Crown Prosecution Service has sought to prosecute two Russian men, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, over the murder, but Russia has refused their extradition. Litvinenko met with both men on the day of his poisoning in a London hotel. Both men deny involvement. |
| Owen said the two men would be invited to give evidence to the inquiry by video link. | Owen said the two men would be invited to give evidence to the inquiry by video link. |
| The government originally refused Owen’s request for a public inquiry into the murder, admitting the decision was taken in part for fear of offending Russia. The dead man’s widow Marina Litvinenko challenged the decision in court and in February last year the high court ruled that Theresa May, the home secretary, should reconsider her decision. | The government originally refused Owen’s request for a public inquiry into the murder, admitting the decision was taken in part for fear of offending Russia. The dead man’s widow Marina Litvinenko challenged the decision in court and in February last year the high court ruled that Theresa May, the home secretary, should reconsider her decision. |
| The government announced in July that it would grant a public inquiry, under Sir Robert Owen, days after Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. | The government announced in July that it would grant a public inquiry, under Sir Robert Owen, days after Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. |
| The inquiry will hear evidence that Litvinenko had been ordered, as a senior officer in the FSB, to murder the Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky in 1997, Robin Tam QC, counsel to the inquiry, told the court on Tuesday. Litvinenko had disagreed with the order and warned Berezovsky of the plot, before protesting to the then head of the FSB, Vladimir Putin, in a meeting the following year, he said. | |
| Litvinenko had spoken out publicly about corruption in the FSB in a press conference in 1998, after which he was subject to a number of attempted prosecutions. He fled the country in 2000, arriving in Britain on 1 November of that year, six years to the day before his fatal poisoning, Tam said. Once in the UK, where he later took up British citizenship, the dissident remained a vocal critic of the Putin regime. | |
| Addressing Owen, Tam said: “You will need to consider whether Litvinenko’s sustained public attacks on the regime, on the FSB and on Mr Putin in particular, could have had any connection with his death.” | |
| The inquiry is likely to hear evidence that the dead man was working for MI6 and for the Spanish security services at the time of his death, Tam told the court, though he said the British government had made clear that it would neither confirm nor deny the suggestion. | |
| He said the chairman would need to consider whether this could have provided a motive for the killing, and would also be required to examine allegations that Berezovsky, a close friend and patron of Litvinenko in the years before his death, was behind the murder, as some have alleged. | |
| Tam told the court that Litvinenko’s home had been firebombed in 2004, apparently by two Chechen men. | |
| In addition, he said, the dead man’s friend, the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was murdered in October 2006, after which Litvinenko had made a statement at the Frontline Club in London in which he blamed Putin. | |
| “Is it possible that there is any connection between this public statement and Mr Litvinenko’s poisoning less than two weeks later?” |