Litvinenko told police he believed Putin ordered his poisoning - as it happened
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Version 0 of 1. 4.29pm GMT16:29 Closing summary After a long and packed first day of the inquiry, here’s the main points: 4.24pm GMT16:24 Now we have David Evans QC for the Atomic Weapons Establishment who promises to take “less than a minute” and, true to his word, says only that the AWE has no case to make, just to assist the inquiry as they can. Then Richard Horwell QC, for the Met police, says he has no opening statement. It’s adjourned until 10am tomorrow. That was quite an opening day. 4.20pm GMT16:20 A photo from earlier of Emmerson arriving at the inquiry with Litvinenko’s widow, Marina. 4.12pm GMT16:12 We are now hearing from the QC for another of the core participants in the inquiry, the home secretary Theresa May. I’m still confirming his name, but his comments so far, as you’d expect, are far more administrative and less dramatic than those of Emmerson. The counsel for May is Neil Garnham QC, I’ve just confirmed. He’s currently talking about the need for secrecy, which is possibly to be expected. Updated at 4.17pm GMT 4.05pm GMT16:05 Litvinenko family QC call Putin " a common criminal dressed up as a head of state" Emmerson is reaching quite a rhetorical flourish now as he concludes. He reiterate the point, yet again, that the family blames not just Russia but Putin personally: We say that when all the open and closed evidence is considered together Mr. Litvinenko’s dying declaration will be borne out as true – that the trail of polonium traces leads not just from London to Moscow but directly to the door of Vladimir Putin’s office – and that Mr Putin should be unmasked by this inquiry as nothing more than a common criminal dressed up as a head of state. 4.02pm GMT16:02 Emmerson gets to the nub of what the Litvinenko family want from the inquiry. he tells Owen: If, in due course, you find that Kremlin officials ordered Litvinenko’s assassination, then we will invite you to go further and to conclude that an officially-sanctioned murder of this kind cannot have been carried out on foreign territory, with all the political implications that that would have, without the personal knowledge and permission of Vladimir Putin. 3.59pm GMT15:59 Emmerson his winding up his address. He tells Sir Robert Owen that the evidence should “lead you to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Lugovoy and Kovtun murdered Alexander Litvinenko and that they did so on the orders of senior officials of the Russian state”. 3.53pm GMT15:53 Emmerson takes a brief detour to dismiss the polygraph test taken by Lugovoi as a “ludicrous media stunt”. Polygraphs are “a pseudo-science” and those who carry them out are “charlatans and snake-oil salesmen”, he argues. 3.47pm GMT15:47 In seeking further to tie Litvinenko’s death directly to the Russian state, Emmerson argues that the amount of polonium-210 used in the case would have cost tens of millions of dollars, and that there is no evidence anyway it is ever sold on the black market. It is, we say moreover, unlikely in the extreme that any private individual or purely criminal enterprise – a pure bunch of hoodlums involved in a crime gang – would choose such a costly method of assassination when they could simply put a bullet in his head. For the Russian State, however, which produces Polonium 210 itself so it’s readily available, the costs of the assassination would by no means prohibitive. The apparent hope, he adds, is that no hospital would discover what had klled Litvinenko. It was only discovered after an “inspired hunch” by police saw atomic experts called in just before the death. Updated at 3.48pm GMT 3.42pm GMT15:42 Emmerson now turns to the polonium-210, which he argues came with Lugovoi and Kovtun and must have come with them from Russia: The scientific evidence will show that the polonium was present in multiple locations, or traces were, such as hotel rooms the two men stayed at, and many of the other places…. The important point is that one or both of the men spent time in each of the places where, according to the forensic evidence, traces of the polonium were found... Once it is recognised that Lugovoy and Kovtun used polonium to murder Mr Litvinenko, the only plausible explanation is that they must have brought it with them from Russia. On each of the three occasions on which they can be proved by forensic evidence to have been carrying polonium-210 with them in London, they had arrived shortly beforehand from Moscow. If further proof of the source were needed, the evidence shows that radioactive contamination was found on the plane that Lugovoy took from Moscow to London on 25 October, and in the room that he first checked into when he arrived at the Sheraton Hotel. So we know, in effect, that the Polonium came to London from Moscow. We know, too, that the polonium used to kill Mr Litvinenko can only be produced in an industrial setting involving a nuclear reactor. The only producer of polonium in Russia is the federal atomic agency, Rosatom. We know that polonium 210 is produced at Avangard, a nuclear laboratory that is owned by Rosatom. And we know that Avangard is the only facility in Russia that produces polonium-210. 3.36pm GMT15:36 A slightly blurry screen grab of Emmerson speaking to the inquiry. 3.34pm GMT15:34 Emmerson insists that Litvinenko was not a traitor but “a whistleblower”, who had no links with British intelligence while with the FSB but was, while in London, “acting as a consultant on a number of investigations and inquiries into organised crime linked to the Kremlin”. He was also performing a similar role with Spain’s security services. Emmerson says. Before his death Spanish prosecutors were investigating the Putin-linked the Tambov-Malyshev gang, and Litvinenko could have been a credible witness about these links in any trial. Emmerson says: All this of course came together to make Mr Litvinenko a prime enemy of the people whose activities he was exposing, inncluding not only the leaders of organised criminal syndicates originating from Russia and operating in Spain, but also those within the higher echelons of the Russian government who were collaborating with and controlling them. 3.27pm GMT15:27 Emmerson then turns to Russian political reaction to Litvinenko’s murder. He quotes Sergei Abeltsev, a member of the LPDR – which Lugovoi now represents – during a Duma debate the day after Litvinenko’s death: The traitor received the punishment he deserved. I am confident that this terrible death will be a serious warning to traitors of all colours, wherever they are located. In Russia, they do not pardon treachery. 3.25pm GMT15:25 Litvinenko then wrote a second book, Emmerson tells the hearing, one which named Putin as having personal links with a major St Petersberg organised crime gang. Emmerson adds: We now know that in revealing Mr Putin’s links to organised crime Mr Litvinenko was hovering near the flame like a proverbial moth. 3.21pm GMT15:21 Emmerson is now describing the Litvinenko family’s flight to the UK where, he says, they took the name Carter for protection. However, Litvinenko published books under his own name, detailing allegations of FSB wrongdoing connected with Chechnya and elsewhere. Of Litvinenko’s first book, Blowing Up Russia, Emmerson says: These revelations did in fact do very considerable damage to Mr Putin’s reputation at home. Even in a country governed by fear, the book achieved significant political traction... He may or may not have known it at that time, but in publishing this book Mr Litvinenko was taking a step closer to his eventual murder. 3.16pm GMT15:16 Emmerson is now detailing what he calls “the Kremlin’s institutional grudge againt Mr Litvinenko”, one based, he says, on Litvinenko’s whistleblowing about FSB crimes from 1998. In doing so Litvinenko had “broken the culture of silence” in the FSB - then led by Putin. From then on, Emmerson says, Litvinenko was “a marked man”. 3.13pm GMT15:13 As to motive, Emmerson says, Litvinenko was killed “partly as an act of political revenge for speaking out, partly as a message of lethal deterrence to others, and partly in order to prevent him from giving evidence as a witness in a criminal prosecution in Spain – a prosecution that could have exposed President Putin’s link to an organised crime syndicate.” Overall, he says, the death “has all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored assassination”. 3.11pm GMT15:11 Emmerson now deals with the Russian response to the murder: It is of course well known that Russia has refused a British request to extradite the two men to face trial in London for murder, and has taken no meaningful steps to investigate or prosecute them in Russia. This is therefore now the only forum in which the evidence of their guilt can be scrutinised, and reliable conclusions reached by an independent tribunal. Mr. Lugovoi is often seen nowadays on Russian television, ostentatiously displaying his unexplained wealth. Since he murdered Mr Litvinenko he has been elected to the Russian Duma, giving him effective immunity from prosecution. The leader of the party he joined is the politician most often publicly associated with Russian organised crime. According to expert evidence that you’re going to hear during the inquiry, Lugovoi and Kovtun just could not have had the careers they have enjoyed in Russian since they committed this terrible murder without political approval at the very highest level. And of course, the Russian state could hardly be expected to put either of these men on trial for a political crime that they had been ordered to commit by the Kremlin. 3.07pm GMT15:07 Emmerson says “there is not the slighest doubt” that Lugovoi and Kovtun killed Litvinenko. He adds: Like Putin himself, both were former agents of the FSB and Lugovoi had links to members of Putin’s inner circle. After Mr Litvinenko’s murder Lugovoy boasted publicly of his close connections with the office of the Russian president. After the murder the pair fled to Moscow “leaving a trail of radioactive traces wherever they went”, Emmerson adds. 3.02pm GMT15:02 Litvinenko family QC calls Putin's Russia "a mafia state" High drama has Emmerson continues his speech with extremely tough words about Putin and his government. Emmerson told the inquiry that Litvinenko died a slow and painful death. He continued: The significance of this dreadful murder, though, resonates far beyond those immediately involved. It is, as you have noted, a matter of grave national and international concern. That is because it involved the calculated pre-planned murder of a British subject on the streets of our capital city by agents of a foreign government, involving the use of the radioactive isotope polonium-210. Mrs Litvinenko has always said – in public and in private – that her search is for the truth. That she is doing no more than any widow would do to find out who killed her husband and why. But the significance of her search involves a much broader national and international public interest in exposing unlawfulness and criminality at the very heart of the Russian state. The intimate relationships that will be proved to exist between the Kremlin and Russian organised crime syndicates around the world, are so close as to make the two effectively indistinguishable. The startling truth, which is going to be revealed in public by the evidence in this inquiry. is that a significant part of Russian organised crime is organised directly from the offices of the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a mafia state. 2.57pm GMT14:57 Emmerson has begun in dramatic style: [This] murder was an act of unspeakable barbarism that inflicted on Sasha Litvinenko the most painful and lingering death imaginable. It was also, as you’ve said, 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. 2.56pm GMT14:56 We now have ben Emmerson QC, representing Marina Litvinenko. This is expected to be strong stuff. 2.43pm GMT14:43 Tam says the inquiry will also consider whether there is evidence for other theories about how Litvinenko died, including whether he was targeted by organised criminals, Chechens, the British security services, or people working for Boris Berezovsky, or if he was accidentally poisoned or deliberately poisoned himself. 2.37pm GMT14:37 Tam says the last area of evidence he will go over is that of responsibility. He calls this “the central question which this inquiry is tasked with considering.” Part of this, he notes, is to look into whether the Russian state was responsible, and if so which arm of the state had “the motive, the resources and, frankly, the daring” to carry out such a crime, and if so what, if any, official complicity they had. Many of the accusations about this, Tam says, came from Litvinenko himself. The inquiry will look into the deaths of other Russian dissidents to see whether any connections can be made. 2.31pm GMT14:31 Tam is now going through the overview of some of the scientific and other expert evidence the inquiry will hear, including the possibility that Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium twice (see 12.18pm). Another line of inquiry, Tam adds, is whether it could be possible to trace the source of the polonium seemingly used to kill Litvinenko back to a specific reactor or even a specific batch. It does not seem possible to do this, Tam says. This is because any comparisons can only be made by looking at impurities, whereas the polonium in this case was pure. Tam says it can be confirmed that a large proportion of polonium in the world is made in Russia, although much of this is exported, meaning this does not necessarily link the crime to Russia. 2.24pm GMT14:24 Another photo of Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, this time with their son, Anatoly. 2.22pm GMT14:22 Tam says the inquiry will also hear from Bruce Burgess, a polygraph expert connected to the Jeremy Kyle TV show, who tested Lugovoi and concluded he was telling the truth in denying involvement in Litvinenko’s death. While polygraph tests are not admissible in court, Burgess says, this is to help allay concerns about the case, Tam adds. 2.15pm GMT14:15 We’ve started again. Sir Robert Owen, the chairman, begins by saying it has been brought to his attention that some people in the courtroom have been sending texts. This is not allowed – anyone seen doing so will be removed and barred, he warns, in that grave way all judges can summon on demand. Owen also says that Marina Litvinenko faced vast numbers of cameras outside the court, and asks the press to try and give her some more space. We will now hear again from Robin Tam QC, one of the counsels for the inquiry, who is outlining in broad detail what evidence the ten-week process will hear. 2.10pm GMT14:10 I can see images from the video feed to the inquiry - as can you at the top of this page – but as yet there’s no sound. They’re either slightly delayed in starting, or there’s some sensitive discussions going on which are not being broadcast. 2.04pm GMT14:04 Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, outside the high court. 1.59pm GMT13:59 Just before we start the afternoon session, here is the story of the morning hearing from Esther Addley: Alexander Litvinenko was the victim of not one but two attempts to poison him with radioactive polonium, the public inquiry into his murder has heard. On the opening day of the long-delayed inquiry into the 2006 killing of the Russian dissident, a court in London heard that in addition to the fatal poisoning incident on 1 November that year, Litvinenko had survived an earlier poisoning attempt two weeks earlier, when he met two other Russian men, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, at an office in Grosvenor Street, central London. Though he had vomited after the first poisoning attempt on 16 October, Robin Tam QC, counsel to the inquiry, told the court, Litvinenko did not become seriously unwell until the second, fatal, attempt. The Crown Prosecution Service has sought the extradition of the two men to face trial over the murder, which both deny. Russia has refused their extradition. Investigators believe Litvinenko died as a result of ingesting a fatal dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210, delivered during a second meeting with Lugovoi and Kovtun in London on 1 November. The Russian dissident died in hospital three weeks later. Tam said the inquiry would hear evidence from a witness from Hamburg who would say Kovtun asked him if he knew of a cook in London as he needed someone to administer a “very expensive poison” to Litvinenko, whom he called “a traitor with blood on his hands”. In deathbed interviews in hospital with Metropolitan police detectives, Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering his murder, Tam told the court. Noting that it is “unusual for a victim of a murder, as Mr Litvinenko believed he might shortly be, to make a public statement about his own death”, Tam said the Russian, who was himself a former officer with the Russian secret service, the FSB, had told detectives that he had “no doubt whatsoever that this was done by the Russian secret service”. He said: “Having knowledge of this system, I know that this order about such a killing of a citizen of another country on its territory, especially if it is something to do with Great Britain, could have been given only by one person.” Asked who that person was, said Tam, Litvinenko told the detective: “That person is the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. And of course, now while he is still president you won’t be able [to prosecute him], because he is the president of a huge country crammed with nuclear chemical and bacteriological weapons. “But I have no doubt whatsoever that as soon as the power changes in Russia, or when the first officer of the Russian secret services defects to the west … he will say that I have been poisoned by the Russian special services on Putin’s order.” In another statement, Tam told the Sir Robert Owen, the inquiry chairman, that Litvinenko said he was “very upset that this criminal Putin sits at G8 as its chairman, at the same table as the [then] British prime minister, Tony Blair. Having sat this murderer next to themselves at the same table, western leaders have actually untied his hands to kill anyone, anywhere.” Litvinenko fled Russia in 2000 and was given political asylum in the UK; he became a British citizen a month before his death but remained a vocal critic of the Putin regime. Reading from transcripts of his police interviews, Tam said the dead man told police: “Yes, they did try to kill me and possibly I will die. But I will die as a free person and my son and wife are free people.” The court heard that Litvinenko told police he took his son Anatoly, then 12, to the Tower of London after becoming a British citizen, showed the boy the crown jewels and urged him to “defend this country in future until the last drop of your blood”. Updated at 4.05pm GMT 1.17pm GMT13:17 Lunchtime summary As the inquiry takes its lunchtime break, it’s time for us to summarise a fascinating morning of evidence: Updated at 2.11pm GMT 1.06pm GMT13:06 The inquiry is taking a break now until 2pm UK time. Tam will continue his outline of the evidence then. 1.02pm GMT13:02 Tam is still reading out previous evidence from Lugovoi. In this, Lugovoi explained that he felt UK intelligence services had started to see Litvinenko as a “loose cannon”, and thus could have been behind the killing instead. Spanish intelligence services, with whom Litvinenko was also working, could also be to blame, he explained, or else Boris Berezovsky could be implicated. Updated at 2.12pm GMT 12.52pm GMT12:52 Tam again stresses that the inquiry is very keen to hear the evidence of Lugovoi and Kovtun. However, he adds, their views are nonetheless well documented, including public declarations, interviews with British police in Moscow, press statements and press conferences on the issue, and other statements. He is now giving a précis of the men’s previous statements. This includes comments by Lugovoi, who questions whether he would really set off on a radioactive poisoning trip to London with his own family: What kind of a monster would one need to be to risk the life of one’s wife and children? Updated at 2.13pm GMT 12.46pm GMT12:46 Inquiry hears of upcoming evidence that Kovtun discussed poison plot Tam says the inquiry will hear from an anonymous witness, known only as D3, who previously worked with Dmitry Kovtun at a restaurant in Hamburg, later keeping in touch with him. According to D3, who Tam says is likely to give evidence via video link from Germany, on 30 October 2006 – two days before Litvinenko was allegedly poisoned – D3 went out for a drink with Kovtun. D3 will say, Tam tells the hearing, that Kovtun brought up the subject of Litvinenko, who D3 did not know, and called him a “traitor with blood on his hands”. He then went on to ask D3 if he knew of a cook working in London. D3 did, and this cook, C2, Tam says, will also give anonymous evidence. Tam explainsd that D3 says Kovtun said he needed a cook to put “very expensive poison” in the food or drink of Litvinenko. Kovtun then asked other people for C2’s contact details, Tam explains, and contacted the cook when in London, using one of Lugovoi’s phones. 12.32pm GMT12:32 Tam is now leading us through some very detailed evidence about what allegedly took place when Litvinenko drank the seemingly fateful cup of green tea at the Millennium hotel on 1 November 2006. Updated at 2.20pm GMT 12.21pm GMT12:21 Here’s a screen grab of Tam speaking to the inquiry. 12.18pm GMT12:18 Inquiry hears Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium twice Tam says, interestingly, that the evidence will show Litvinenko was poisoned “not once but twice”. The second, and fatal time, took place on 1 November at the hotel bar, as well documented. But Tam says the first attempt appeared to happen when Litvinenko met Lugovoi and Kovtun at an office in Grosvenor Street, central London, on 16 October, when the Russian visitors were on an earlier visit. The inquiry will hear evidence that Litvinenko vomited and felt ill on the evening after the first meeting and that samples from his hair suggested poisoning around this date. Updated at 2.21pm GMT 12.13pm GMT12:13 As a useful interim summary, Esther Addley has filed this new story on proceedings so far, which will be on the website soon: Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering his murder in deathbed interviews with the Metropolitan police in the days before he died, the public inquiry into his killing has heard. On the opening day of the inquiry into the Russian’s murder in 2006, the court was told that the dead man spoke to officers from his hospital bed, after being poisoned by radioactive polonium, in which he said he had “no doubt whatsoever that this was done by the Russian secret service”. “Having knowledge of this system, I know that this order about such a killing of a citizen of another country on its territory, especially if it is something to do with Great Britain, could have been given only by one person,” Litvinenko told the police investigating officer, Robin Tam QC, counsel to the inquiry, told the court. Asked who that person was, said Tam, Litvinenko said: “That person is the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. “And of course, now while he is still president you won’t be able [to prosecute him], because he is the president of a huge country crammed with nuclear chemical and bacteriological weapons. “But I have no doubt whatsoever that as soon as the power changes in Russia, or when the first officer of the Russian secret services defects to the west ... he will say that I have been poisoned by the Russian special services on Putin’s order.” In another statement, Tam told the court, Litvinenko said he was “very upset that this criminal sits at G8 as its chairman, at the same table as the [then] British prime minister, Tony Blair. Having sat this murderer next to themselves at the same table, western leaders have actually untied his hands to kill anyone, anywhere.” Litvinenko died on 23 November 2006, 22 days after ingesting a fatal dose of the radioactive element polonium-210. “It is unusual,” Tam told the inquiry chair, Sir Robert Owen, “for a victim of murder, as Mr Litvinenko believed he might shortly be, to make a public statement about his own death.” Litvinenko fled Russia in 2000 and was given political asylum in the UK; he became a British citizen a month before his death. The court heard that Litvinenko had told police he took his son Anatoly, then 12, to the Tower of London before he died, where he had showed his son the crown jewels. Reading from transcripts of his police interviews, Tam said the dead man told police: “Yes, they did try to kill me and possibly I will die. But I will die as a free person and my son and wife are free people.” Updated at 2.24pm GMT 12.07pm GMT12:07 Esther Addley noted this good quote from Litvineko’s deathbed interview with police, about Vladimir Putin. #Litvinenko to police on deathbed 'I am v upset this criminal sits on G8... Western leaders have untied his hands to kill anyone, anywhere' 12.02pm GMT12:02 Tam is now detailing Lugovoi and Kovtun’s various visits to London, starting from 16 October 2006, and their meetings with Litvinenko, both at the offices of security firms, at hotels and at bars and restaurants. At the latest of these, Lugovoi and Kovtun were staying at the Millennium hotel in central London on 1 November. As part of his trip, Lugovoi and the family and friends travelling with him went to see CSKA Moscow play Arsenal at the Emirates stadium, Tam adds. Later, tests found traces of radiation in “a large number of places” visited by Lugovoi and Kovtun, Tam says. Such traces were found at “almost all of the aircraft used by the men over this period that British scientists were able to test” as well as cars, restaurants, hotels, and even the Emirates stadium. Updated at 2.36pm GMT 11.51am GMT11:51 Tam explains the inquiry would still like to hear from Lugovoi and Kovtun, via video link from Russia, so they can respond to allegations. This appeared unlikely, he said. Lugovoi had made it clear he did not want to give evidence, while the inquiry had not heard from Kovtun for “a very long time”. 11.49am GMT11:49 More details from Esther Addley, watching proceedings from the court annexe: 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. Tam said: “Is it possible that there is any connection between this public statement and Mr Litvinenko’s poisoning less than two weeks later?” 11.48am GMT11:48 Tam also adds that Litvinenko explained how he had taken his then 12-year-old son to the Tower of London and urged him to protect Britain, the country that had offered them refuge. Tam is now briefly explaining the possible role of Lugovoi and Kovtun, and their seemingly fateful meeting with Litvinenko at the London hotel in November 2006. 11.44am GMT11:44 Tam is now reading extracts from interviews Litvinenko conducted with the police shortly before his death. Asked by a detective who might have been responsible for his imminent death, Litvinenko replied: I have no doubt who wanted it, and I often received threats from these people. I have no doubt this was done by the Russia secret services. Such an act could have been authorised by “only by one person”, Litvinenko adds – Putin. Updated at 2.38pm GMT 11.41am GMT11:41 Tam notes that in a highly unusual development, when he was gravely ill, Litvinenko produced a statement in which he addressed those who he believed to be his likely murderers. Tam is reading it out in full. One sentence reads: I can distinctly hear the beating of the wings of the angel of death. It ends by naming Vladimir Putin as being to blame, with Litvinenko saying to the Russia leader: May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people. Updated at 2.38pm GMT 11.37am GMT11:37 Tam is explaining the threats Litvinenko received while in London, which came “from a variety of sources”. At one point his house was firebombed, seemingly by Chechen activists. A few weeks before his death, Litvinenko and his family became British citizens at a ceremony at Haringey town hall in London, Tam notes. Updated at 2.38pm GMT 11.34am GMT11:34 The session has resumed. Robin Tam QC, one of the counsel to the inquiry, is carrying on describing the background to the case, and Litvinenko’s life and career. Except he’s stopped – Tam’s microphone has broken. Cue another pause. Updated at 2.39pm GMT 11.21am GMT11:21 Sir Robert Owen has stopped Tam to suggest a 10-minute break. Back after that. Updated at 2.39pm GMT 11.19am GMT11:19 The video feed briefly switched itself off just now. That either indicated a technical fault or, more likely, Tam was explaining a sensitive piece of evidence which could not be broadcast for legal or security reasons. 11.15am GMT11:15 Litvinenko was sacked and later jailed for his whistleblowing, Tam says. His later escape from Russia “would not disgrace the pages of a thriller”, the QC says – fleeing on a forged passport to Georgia and Turkey, then meeting his family and flying to London where they claimed asylum. The family got to London on 1 November 2000 – six years to the day, Tam notes, before he drank the cup of tea allegedly containing the polonium. Tam then explains Litvinenko’s activities in London, including books and articles he wrote detailing what he said was endemic FSB corruption, and claims against Vladimir Putin personally. Updated at 2.39pm GMT 11.10am GMT11:10 Tam is giving a potted history of Litvinenko’s career with Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, including his close links with the late oligarch and Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, and Litvinenko’s gradual disillusionment with his work, including worries over an alleged FSB order to kill Berezovsky. Litvinenko then became a public whistleblower, Tam says. Tam says Litvinenko converted to Islam at the very end of his life. Esther Addley has more on this. Evidence that #Litvinenko ordered to kill Boris Berezovsky in 97, court hears. Lit disagreed, tried to warn head of FSB - Vladimir Putin Updated at 2.40pm GMT 11.01am GMT11:01 Tam says the inquiry will hear from more than 70 witnesses, including Litvinenko’s family and friends and those who worked with him; medical staff who treated him; pathologists who investigated his death; police in the UK and Germany; forensic scientists and other expert witnesses. Tam says some commentators have said there is something “sinister” in the fact that the most mortem examination results into Litvinenko’s death have never been made public. “There is nothing of the kind,” Tam says – it’s just that, without an inquest or trial, there has not yet been the right forum in which to hear it. But this will change tomorrow, he addds. 10.57am GMT10:57 Tam is going through who the “core participants” in the inquiry are. They are: Marina and Anatoly Litvinenko; the Metropolitan police; the office of Theresa May, the home secretary; and the Atomic Weapons Establishment. These are all represented by their own lawyers. Lugovoi and Kovtun were asked if they wanted to become core participants but have not chosen to do so, Tam adds. They are still, even now, very welcome to join (don’t hold your breath for this). 10.49am GMT10:49 Tam notes that members of the public are permitted to sit in the courtroom annexe, where the evidence is being played on a video feed, with a five-minute delay. He also says that at times, “enhanced measures” will be in place, with no public or media allowed in the main courtroom, to make sure no sensitive evidence is disclosed. They will, however, be able to follow proceedings via video feed (with the five-minute delay to allow for sensitive facts to be excised). The same measures will be in place when anonymous witnesses give evidence. 10.44am GMT10:44 Inquiry chair Sir Robert Owen confirms evidence relating to Russian state responsibility will be heard in private #Litvinenko A useful tweet from Esther Addley earlier about Owen’s comments. 10.40am GMT10:40 Tam is still explaining the steps leading up to the inquiry, including the suspension of the inquest into Litvinenko’s death ahead of the hearings. Tam then outlines the terms of reference of the inquiry. You can read them on the inquiry’s website, and here they are below. They’re simple, if wordy. Section ii is, of course, the big one – who killed him? The terms of reference of the inquiry are: 1. Subject to paragraphs 2 and 3 below, the chairman is to conduct an investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko in order to: (i) ascertain, in accordance with s.5(1) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, who the deceased was; how, when and where he came by his death; and the particulars (if any) required by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 to be registered concerning the death; (ii) identify, so far as is consistent with s.2 of the Inquiries Act 2005, where responsibility for the death lies; and (iii) make such recommendations as may seem appropriate. 2. That investigation is to take into account the investigations which have already been conducted by the assistant coroner for the inner north London [Sir Robert Owen]. 3. In the light of the assistant coroner’s views, expressed in his ruling of 17 May 2013, (see paragraph 13 of the Judicial Review judgment dated 11 February 2014) that there is no material within the relevant documents to suggest that, at any material time, Alexander Litvinenko was or ought to have been assessed as being at a real and immediate threat to his life, the inquiry will not address the question of whether the UK authorities could or should have taken steps which would have prevented the death. 10.32am GMT10:32 Here’s a TV screen grab of Sir Robert Owen making his remarks. 10.31am GMT10:31 My colleague, Esther Addley, who is listening to the evidence in an overspill room of the court, sends in this on what the inquiry chairman, Sir Robert Owen, said in his opening address: 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, 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. He would consider evidence relating to this allegation, he said, but confirmed that it would be heard in closed session because of security sensitivities. 10.27am GMT10:27 Tam notes Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun have been charged by the CPS but remain in Russia. The pair, Tam says, met Litvinemko on 1 November 2006 at “the best-know location” connected to his death, the Pine Bar at the Millennium Hotel in central London (this is where they allegedly slipped radioactive polonium-210 into his green tea). 10.24am GMT10:24 The hearing has begun. We’re currently hearing Robin Tam QC, one of the counsel to the inquiry – ie one of the lawyers working for the process, not one of the parties. He is talking through the background to Litvinenko’s death in 2006. There has been “vigorous debate” about the various theories as to how and why Litvinenko might have died, Tam tells the hearing. 10.08am GMT10:08 And finally, before we all start, why does all this matter, beyond the obvious and very painful desire of Marina Litvinenko and her son, Anatoly, to know what happened? Primarily, it’s because the inquiry could have major repercussions for UK-Russian relations. Before he died, Litvinenko directly blamed Vladimir Putin for his murder. The Crown Prosecution Service has charged Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun in absentia with the crime. Both remain in Russia, where Lugovoi is now a politician and deputy. If the inquiry concludes the Russian state was directly behind such a murder on British soil, it could have a chilling effect on relations. It could also, potentially, expose a lot of unsavoury aspects of Putin’s Russia to very public global view. The evidence starts at 10.30am London time. Updated at 2.45pm GMT 10.08am GMT10:08 Here’s Sir Robert Owen arriving at the high court for the hearing. 10.08am GMT10:08 As you’ll see at the top of this blog we have a live stream of the hearing. It’s being broadcast with a five-minute delay, lest anything is said with security implications. For that same reason the reporters in the court are not being allowed to tweet the evidence. What will we get today? We begin with some opening comments from the inquiry chairman, Sir Robert Owen, a high court judge. Then we get the opening speech by various counsel to the inquiry, and then opening speeches by what the inquiry website calls “core participants”. This will mean the opening address by Ben Emmerson, the highly respected QC representing Litvinenko’s widow, Marina. Emmerson’s speech – which is roughly parallel to the prosecution opening speech in a trial – should lay out most of the main arguments by the family, and should be very interesting. Updated at 2.44pm GMT 10.08am GMT10:08 Another good introduction as to what’s happening today is Luke’s curtain-raising story for today, which you can read in full here. This is a snippet: Litvinenko was poisoned on 1 November 2006, after meeting two Russian contacts, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, in the Millennium hotel in London. The pair allegedly slipped radioactive polonium-210 into Litvinenko’s green tea. Litvinenko died in a London hospital 22 days later, after blaming Vladimir Putin for his Cold War-style assassination. The Crown Prosecution Service has charged Lugovoi and Kovtun with Litvinenko’s murder. Putin, however, has refused to allow them to be extradited from Moscow. In 2007 Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in protest, with Russia following suit. Neither of the two suspects will take part in the inquiry. They say they are innocent. Litvinenko’s widow Marina and son Anatoly – aged 12 at the time of his father’s death and now 20 – are expected to attend. The inquiry will hear for the first time from the Metropolitan police, whose officers interviewed Litvinenko in the intensive care ward of University College hospital, London, shortly before his death. The Met is also likely to make public compelling forensic evidence showing a trail of polonium left by Lugovoi and Kovtun in their hotel, and in numerous other locations around London. Detective inspector Craig Mascall will give evidence on Wednesday, followed by two forensic pathologists, Dr Nathaniel Carey and Dr Benjamin Swift... Marina Litvinenko appealed and the home secretary Theresa May agreed to an inquiry last summer, days after the shooting down of a civilian airliner, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian rebels. May had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the UK’s relations with Moscow. 10.08am GMT10:08 Just over eight years after Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer and MI6 informant based in London, was killed by – as he claimed shortly before his slow death from apparent radiation poisoning – agents of the Russian state, a public inquiry opens into his alleged murder. The inquiry will take place at the high court in London for the next 10 weeks. What is it all about? Well, a very good place to start is this explanatory video made by my colleagues, Luke Harding and Guy Grandjean. Updated at 2.40pm GMT |