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Alexander Litvinenko Killed for Being Friends with Chechens
// Ichkeria’s envoy in London came up with a version
Investigator Alexander Otvodov of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office questioned political emigrant Boris Berezovsky in London on Friday for the case concerning the murder of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko. Otvodov said on Monday that Berezovsky did not answer half of the 100 questions asked to him. Berezovsky stated that Otvodov was asking him about things of no relation to the murder. Russian investigators also questioned political emigrant Akhmed Zakaev the same day. Zakaev, in his turn, is puzzled why he was asked about two YUKOS employees absolutely unknown to him.
Investigator for especially important cases of the Prosecutor General’s Office Alexander Otvodov said on Monday that during the interrogation of political emigrant Boris Berezovsky in London on Friday, he asked him “over 100 questions and about the same number of specifying subquestions related to Alexander Litvinenko’s murder case, but Berezovsky refused to answer half of them.” Otvodov explained that his questions, translated into English, were asked to the political emigrant by British investigators. “When Berezovsky avoided answering, specifying subquestions were asked to him,” added Otvodov. “Yet, even then, he would not answer some questions.” After meeting with the investigator, Berezovsky said that he was asking him mainly about banking accounts [Kommersant covered Boris Berezovsky’s interrogation on March 31].
Otvodov said there were no time limits: Berezovsky arrived to Scotland Yard at 10:50 a.m. on Friday, and his meeting with Russian investigators lasted till 5:00 p.m. At the same time, Otvodov’s colleagues were questioning political emigrant Akhmed Zakaev in the next room. The interrogation of the Chechen envoy lasted four hours only. Otvodov underlined that the special inspection procedure, including the search for toxic agents at which Berezovsky had been previously insisting, was not applied to the Russian investigators: they, their British colleagues, and interpreters were inspected in the regular way.
“I met with the investigator of the Prosecutor General’s Office in the building of Scotland Yard, in the presence of a British officer who was questioning me following the list of questions prepared by the Russian investigators. The questions were translated by the interpreter,” said Zakaev. “There were about 50 questions, but only few concerned Litvinenko’s case. For instance, five or six questions were about Badri Patarkatsishvili, some twenty – about Berezovsky, and about YUKOS employees that I do not know at all.”
Zakaev added that he did not answer many questions that he believed had no relation to Litvinenko’s case: “Scotland Yard officer was interrupting the interrogation every 15 minutes to tell me that I have the right to leave any question unanswered or to stop the interrogation. So I used that right.”
Zakaev said that the Russian investigator asked about the circumstances of Zakaev’s acquaintance with Litvinenko and about their relations in the very end of the questioning. ‘It seemed to me that the investigator’s meeting with me was just a formality. They did not have the purpose to disclose the circumstances of Litvinenko’s death and to find those who are behind the crime,” said Zakaev, adding that he had suggested his own version of the murder. Zakaev thinks that Litvinenko might have been killed for cooperating with Chechen authorities. “He was a member of the Committee for investigating war crimes in Chechnya created by Aslan Maskhadov. Litvinenko submitted names of generals guilty of violence against peaceful civilians, and provided documents that compromised Russian authorities, to us,” said Zakaev.
Musa Muradov
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 03, 2007
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