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British Prosecutors Deny Litvinenko Charges Were Blocked

May 20, 2007

Aleksandr Litvinenko days before his November 2006 death of radiation poisoning (epa)

Aleksandr Litvinenko days before his November 2006 death of radiation poisoning (epa)

May 20, 2007 -- The British prosecutors' office denies that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett prevented them from charging two Russians in the killing of Aleksandr Litvinenko for fear of upsetting the Kremlin, as a British daily reported.


Ken MacDonald, the director of public prosecutions in England, said the report about Beckett is "completely untrue."


Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun are key suspects in the murder of Litvinenko, the former Federal Security Service officer who died in November of radiation contamination.


Lugovoi and Kovtun are former KGB agents who had tea with Litvinenko in London on the day he was poisoned. Both are in Moscow.


(AFP)

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Aleksandr Litvinenko: A Timeline



CLOAK AND DAGGER: A timeline of a murder case that unraveled after Andrei Litvinenko, a former Russian security officer and vocal Kremlin critic, dies on November 23, 2006, of poisoning by radioactive isotope polonium-210.

In a deathbed letter, Litvinenko blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death -- a claim Putin condemns.

Investigators center on two meetings in London that Litvinenko had described -- one in which he met with two Russians for tea in London, and another in which he met with a third Russian at a sushi bar.

Six months later, British prosecutors announce they have enough evidence to charge a Russian citizen -- one of the men who had met with Litvinenko for tea -- with the murder ...more...

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