Andrei Lugovoy is ready to help Scotland Yard in the probe into the killing of Alexander Litvinenko.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Lugovoy Demands British Immunity
The State Duma member Andrei Lugovoy and businessman Dmitry Kovtun announced Saturday their readiness to go to London to meet with Scotland Yard detectives probing into the murder of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko. But Lugovoy and Kovtun will go to Britain if the British authorities guarantee immunity to Lugovoy and agree not to extradite Kovtun to Germany.
Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun came up with their statement November 22, i.e. on the eve of the anniversary of Alexander Litvinenko’s death. Lugovoy had met with Litvinenko in a bar of Millennium hotel, London, November 1, 2006. Litvinenko had fallen ill later that day, admitted to hospital and died of polonium 210 poisoning November 23, 2006. In his posthumous letter, Litvinenko had accused then Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of involvement into his death. Andrei Lugovoi is the direct suspect in Britain, but Russia has refused to extradite him, as the RF constitution bans extradition of own citizens.
Meanwhile, Germany has initiated a criminal case against Dmitry Kovtun on count of illegal delivery of radioactive agents. There, the investigators suppose that the matter at stake could be exactly the polonium that killed Litvinenko.
For two years, we have been calling on British prosecutors to proceed to cooperation. In the past year, nothing new has emerged in Litvinenko’s case and we are surprised that British government has never attempted to get in touch with us, Lugovoy said in a statement reported by western media. Russia’s lawmaker called the investigating process rather sluggish, blaming the delay on involvement of the wheels of British state into Litvinenko’s murder. At the same time, Lugovoy specified that Kovtun and he would go to Britain provided the British authorities guaranteed they wouldn’t extradite Kovtun to Germany and granted immunity to Lugovoy.
Kovtun has confirmed agreement with Lugovoy’s words, while official London has ignored the cooperation intention of two suspects.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 24, 2008
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