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British Inquiry Into Death of Ex-K.G.B. Officer Begins British Inquiry Into Death of Ex-K.G.B. Officer Begins
(about 4 hours later)
LONDON — A senior British judge opened a frequently delayed public inquiry on Tuesday into the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer, whistle-blower and opponent of the Kremlin who was poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope, polonium 210, as he sipped tea in an upscale London hotel in November 2006. LONDON — Offering new details after years of official silence, a public inquiry into the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer and vitriolic critic of the Kremlin, opened on Tuesday with a lawyer for his widow saying that the trail of evidence would lead “directly to the door” of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The judge, Robert Owen, has indicated that the inquiry, the most detailed public scrutiny so far of the poisoning, could last about 10 weeks and would cover Mr. Litvinenko’s personal life before and after he fled Russia in 2000 to seek asylum with his family in London. “The murder was an act of unspeakable barbarism that inflicted on Alexander Litvinenko the most painful and lingering death imaginable,” the lawyer, Ben Emmerson said. "It was also an act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of a major city which put the lives of numerous other members of the public at risk.”
Mr. Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, entered Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice shortly before the hearing began at 10 a.m. In an early morning radio interview, she repeated her husband’s deathbed assertion that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia authorized the killing — an accusation that Mr. Putin has denied. Mr. Emmerson, was speaking after Robin Tam, the counsel for the inquiry, disclosed new evidence to suggest that Mr. Litvinenko, who died of radiation poisoning in 2006, had been the target of two attacks – not just one — using the rare isotope polonium 210, and that one of his accused killers had boasted of having a “very expensive poison.”
The inquiry is scheduled to consider a range of potential situations, including the possible involvement of Russian state agencies, British spies and others in his death. “The startling truth which will be revealed by the evidence in this inquiry is that a significant part of Russian organized crime is organized directly from the offices of the Kremlin,” Mr. Emmerson said, adding, “Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a Mafia State.”
As he opened the inquiry, Judge Owen said the hearings would deal with “matters of the utmost gravity,” including assertions in British government documents that there was “prima facie evidence” of Russian state involvement. Mr. Litvinenko “had to be eliminated – not because he was an enemy of the Russian State itself or an enemy of the Russian people – but because he had become an enemy of the close-knit group of criminals who surround Vladimir Putin and keep his corrupt regime in power.” Mr. Emmerson, representing the widowed Marina Litvinenko, cited investigations by Mr. Litvinenko into organized crime gangs in Russia and Spain.
He said that he would conduct a “full and independent” inquiry, although parts of it would be in secret, and that the two main suspects identified by the British authorities — Andrei K. Lugovoi and Dmitri V. Kovtun — would be invited to testify by video link from Russia. The inquiry into his death on Nov. 23, 2006, is being led by a senior British judge, Robert Owen, who indicated on Tuesday that hearings could last about 10 weeks and would cover Mr. Litvinenko’s life before and after he fled Russia in 2000 to seek asylum with his family in London.
Robin Tam, the inquiry’s counsel, reiterated that it would not address the issue of whether the British authorities should have protected Mr. Litvinenko. As he opened the inquiry, Judge Owen said the hearings would deal with “matters of the utmost gravity,” including assertions in British government documents that there was evidence of Russian state involvement.
Parts of Judge Owen’s final report will not make reference to evidence that the British authorities deem harmful to national security. He said that he would conduct a “full and independent” inquiry, although parts of it would be in secret to protect national security, and that the two main suspects identified by the British authorities — Andrei K. Lugovoi and Dmitri V. Kovtun — would be invited to testify by video link from Russia. British prosecutors have accused them of bringing polonium from Moscow to London.
Laying out his broad narrative of events, Mr. Tam said the inquiry would have to consider whether Mr. Litvinenko’s death was linked to his activities as a whistle-blower in the late 1990s in Russia – when he denounced the F.S.B., the domestic successor to the K.G.B., just as Mr. Putin was taking over as head of the organization. The British authorities have said Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun were with Mr. Litvinenko on Nov. 1, 2006, when he drank tea in a hotel bar, close to the United States Embassy in London. Hours later, Mr. Litvinenko began to vomit, and he died 22 days later. Only after his death was it made known that he had been poisoned with polonium.
He also said there was scientific evidence that Mr. Litvinenko had been poisoned twice with polonium, but died only after ingesting a second, larger dose on Nov. 1, 2006. In the weeks leading to that event, Mr. Tam said, Mr. Lugovoi visited London on two occasions and Mr. Kovtun once. The two men first came to the city on Oct. 16, 2006, Mr. Tam said, and they joined Mr. Litvinenko in a meeting at the offices of a private security company, where traces of polonium were later found “in many areas” of the boardroom. Mr. Kovtun and Mr. Lugovoi have denied killing Mr. Litvinenko, accusing the former K.G.B. officer of seeking to poison them. British prosecutors have sought the extradition of Mr. Lugovoi, a former K.G.B. bodyguard, but the Russian authorities have refused to hand him over, citing constitutional constraints.
Scientists who examined Mr. Litvinenko’s hair samples after his death found evidence that he ingested polonium on another occasion at around the same time — two weeks before the meeting at the Millennium Hotel, where he was believed to have been fatally poisoned. Laying out his broad narrative of events, Mr. Tam, the counsel for the inquiry, said the hearings would have to consider whether Mr. Litvinenko’s death was linked to his activities as a whistle-blower in Russia in the late 1990s – when he denounced the F.S.B., the domestic successor to the K.G.B., just as Mr. Putin was taking over as head of the organization before becoming prime minister and then president.
Mr. Tam also said the inquiry would call a witness to testify in return for anonymity from Hamburg, Germany, where Mr. Kovtun had once worked in a restaurant and where he sometimes visited his former wife. Mr. Tam also said there was scientific evidence that Mr. Litvinenko had been poisoned twice with polonium, and died only after ingesting a second, larger dose on Nov. 1, 2006, in a bar at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square.
During a meeting in Hamburg with a former co-worker shortly before he flew to London on Nov. 1, 2006, Mr. Kovtun criticized Mr. Litvinenko as a traitor, boasted that he had “a very expensive poison” and asked whether his former colleague knew a cook in London, Mr. Tam said. In the weeks leading to that event, Mr. Tam said, Mr. Lugovoi visited London on two occasions and Mr. Kovtun once. The two men were with Mr. Litvinenko, Mr. Tam said, at a meeting at a private security company’s offices where traces of polonium were later found.
He needed the cook, according to Mr. Tam, to place the poison in food or drink. The former co-worker obtained a phone number for a cook, and telephone records showed that someone who gave his name as Dmitri called the cook in London on Nov. 1, 2006, at around the time Mr. Kovtun arrived from Hamburg and went to join Mr. Lugovoi. The call was made from a cellphone owned by Mr. Lugovoi, potentially suggesting a direct link between Mr. Kovtun, Mr. Lugovoi and the purported conversations in Hamburg about a poisoning. Scientists who examined Mr. Litvinenko’s hair samples after his death found evidence that he ingested polonium at around that same time — two weeks before the meeting at the hotel where he was believed to have been fatally poisoned.
Mr. Litvinenko, 43, died on Nov. 23, 2006, but the presence of lethal levels of polonium was made known only a day after his death. The British authorities have said Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun were with Mr. Litvinenko when he had tea in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, close to the United States Embassy in central London. Mr. Tam also said the inquiry would call a witness from Hamburg, Germany, to testify in return for anonymity. Mr. Kovtun had once worked in Hamburg, where he sometimes visited his ex-wife.
Both men have denied killing Mr. Litvinenko, accusing the former K.G.B. officer of seeking to poison them. British prosecutors have sought the extradition of Mr. Lugovoi, a former K.G.B. bodyguard, but the Russian authorities have refused to hand him over, citing constitutional constraints. During a meeting in Hamburg with a former co-worker shortly before he flew to London on Nov. 1, 2006, Mr. Kovtun boasted that he had “a very expensive poison” and asked if his ex-colleague knew a cook in London to administer it in food or drink, Mr. Tam said.
Since Mr. Litvinenko’s death, Mr. Lugovoi has become a member of the Russian Parliament. The former co-worker obtained a phone number for a cook, and telephone records showed that someone who gave his name as Dmitri called the cook on Nov. 1, 2006, from a cellphone owned by Mr. Lugovoi, potentially suggesting a direct link between Mr. Kovtun, Mr. Lugovoi and the purported conversation in Hamburg.
On Tuesday, Mr. Tam quoted at length from a statement by Mr. Lugovoi in which he accused Mr. Litvinenko of plotting with Mr. Kovtun to blackmail another of the key players in the drama – Boris A. Berezovsky, a former oligarch and mentor who died by hanging in still unexplained circumstances in 2013. Since Mr. Litvinenko’s death, Mr. Lugovoi, a wealthy businessman, has become a member of the Russian Parliament and a television celebrity in Russia.
Mr. Berezovksy, like Mr. Litvinenko, was a visceral enemy of Mr. Putin and also fled to London to seek asylum in 2000. Mr. Lugovoi was also quoted as saying the encounter in the Pine Bar could not have taken place “without the control of the British secret services.”
In the prelude to the inquiry, new strands of potential evidence have emerged in news reports suggesting variously that the poisoning was the third attempt on Mr. Litvinenko’s life and that, one year before he died, he had recorded a secret audiotape linking Mr. Putin to a Ukrainian crime boss.
In a contentious statement from his deathbed, Mr. Litvinenko blamed Mr. Putin for the poisoning, but the Russian leader has denied the accusation.
Mr. Tam read out Mr. Litvinenko’s ringing denunciation of Mr. Putin at the hearing on Tuesday.
Russian prosecutors, who once held the status of so-called core participants at the inquiry, have withdrawn, and Moscow has ridiculed the hearings as a sham because of the levels of secrecy shrouding central witnesses and testimony.