Scotland Yard Allowed to Attend Interrogation of Russian Witness
The key witness in poisoning murder of political émigré Alexander Litvinenko, businessman Andrey Lugovoy is ready to testify. But the Scotland Yard detectives won’t be able to independently ask questions, they are allowed only to attend interrogation conducted by Russian prosecutors.
“I’m going through the checkup in hospital from past Tuesday, but it won’t prevent me from meeting Scotland Yard detectives, who arrived in Moscow. I am not hiding from anyone,” Andrey Lugovoy announced yesterday, making clear he is ready to answer the questions of Scotland Yard anytime but is waiting for official summons.
“Britain’s investigators have no procedural status in Russia. So, investigators of Prosecutor General Office should interrogate me. But I have received no summons so far,” Lugovoy said, adding he will unveil the results of the medical checkup once he talks to investigators.
Scotland Yard views Lugovoy as the key witness in poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former intelligence officer of Russia. Together with his two friends and business partners, Dmitry Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, Lugovoy met with Litvinenko in London, in a bar at the Millennium Hotel on November 1. On that day, Litvinenko was allegedly poisoned with radioactive polonium-210.
Traces of radiation were found in planes taken by Lugovoy to fly to London and back to Moscow and in the hotel rooms, where he stayed during the trips.
Of interest is that Lugovoy expressed readiness to meet Scotland Yard no sooner than Russia’s Prosecutor General Yury Chaika voiced his official views on the issue. “If the doctors permit, but according to our data, he [Andrey Lugovoy] is ill and is in hospital now, he will be interrogated for sure,” Chaika said.
Moreover, Prosecutor General crossed out any chances of extraditing the suspects, who are the citizens of Russia, as it will violate the RF Constitution.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 06, 2006
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