Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky is congratulated on his birthday.
Photo: Pavel Filenkov
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Authorities Shelve Berezovsky’s Case on Litvinenko’s Murder
Russia’s prosecutors, Boris Berezovsky said, have stopped for some time investigating him for attempted seizure of power because of the probe into Litvinenko’s case. “As the Prosecutors Office intends to send investigators to London, it wants to show that it has no other reason to meet with him except the case of Litvinenko,” the Echo Moskva radio station quoted Boris Berezovsky as saying.
When interrogated by representatives of Prosecutor General Office, Berezovsky reiterated, he will answer only the questions about the murder of FSB former officer, who died in London November 23 after being poisoned by polonium 210.
In February 2006, Russia’s prosecutors opened a case against Boris Berezovsky on count of calling for the forcible change of the constitutional system in the country. The reason of the probe was Berezovsky’s interview to Echo Moskva, where the tycoon explicitly said that he was working at the forcible seizure of power in Russia.
Days later, Berezovsky explained that he had had in mind some bloodless replacement of authoritarian power by the democratic one, similar to Georgia and Ukraine.
It was Andrey Borovkov, attorney of the defense, who announced the delay in that probe on January 22. Borovkov said he was told by the prosecutors that “investigating actions were completed and further investigation cannot be carried out in the absence of the accused.”
Today’s resident of London, Boris Berezovsky has the status of political refugee along with the new documents issued in the name of Platon Elenin. In June 2006, the Britain’s court refused to extradite Berezovsky to Russia, explaining the denial to Geneva Convention protection.
The intention of Russia’s prosecutors is to send a team of detectives to London to interrogate Berezovsky as a witness under Litvinenko’s case. Berezovsky agreed to answer the questions provided it doesn’t happen in the Russian Embassy and the Russian detectives are checked by Scotland Yard for firearms and poison before interrogation.
Of interest is that Russia’s Prosecutor General Office denied the statement of Berezovsky’s lawyer related to shelving his case opened because of the attempted seizure of power and the public calls for changing the constitutional system in Russia. The investigation of that case goes on, the prosecutors said as quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency, it is carried out by the FSB’s investigating department.
Berezovsky has been added to the Interpol wanted list and detention is the measure of restraint chosen for him.
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