Andrey Lugovoi, businessman and former KGB officer
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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Lugovoi Won't Go to Britain
After taking two months to decide, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has officially refused to extradite former intelligence agent and businessman Andrey Lugovoi to Great Britain, where he is accused of the murder of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko by poisoning with polonium 210. That is not the end of the prosecutor's dealings with Lugovoi, however, since writer Eduard Limonov has complained to it that Lugovoi threatened his life in an interview.
The prosecutor cited article 61 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, even if they are accused of crimes in another country. In addition, it notes that article 6 of the European Convention on Extradition also gives countries the right to refuse requests for extradition. Therefore, it concludes, “there is no possibility of satisfying the British side's request for the extradition of Andrey Lugovoi.”
The prosecutor's office's written response repeats statements made by Prosecutor General Yury Chaika almost word for word. Chaika has also stated that Lugovoi may be charged under Russian law if “the British side presents convincing proof of his guilt and the Russian prosecutor's office considers it well-grounded.”
It has also become known that opposition writer Eduard Limonov (Savenko) sent a registered letter to the prosecutor's office demanding that a criminal be initiated against Lugovoi for threatening to kill the writer. Limonov told Kommersant he was distressed by an interview published in Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. “Lugovoi stated that he has information about assassinations attempts against me and Mikhail Kasyanov and I think that the Prosecutor General's Office is obliged to check that information, all the more so since it comes from such a sinister person.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 06, 2007
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