The Anatomy of Public Corruption

Showing posts with label Radiation Poisoning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Radiation Poisoning. Show all posts

Police open murder probe as 1 of 2 nerve agent victims dies

 

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, July 5, 2018, an unidentified British police officer guards a cordon in Salisbury, England. Officials say Saturday July 7, 2018, that a police officer is being tested for possible medical problems related to the recent Novichok nerve agent poisoning of two individuals in southwest England. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, July 5, 2018, an unidentified British police officer guards a cordon in Salisbury, England. Officials say Saturday July 7, 2018, that a police officer is being tested for possible medical problems related to the recent Novichok nerve agent poisoning of two individuals in southwest England. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)


LONDON (AP) — A woman who was poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent in southwest England died Sunday, eight days after police think she touched a contaminated item that has not been found.
London's Metropolitan Police force said the case had become a homicide investigation now that 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess had died in a hospital in Salisbury. She and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, 45, were admitted June 30 and remained in critical condition.
Police said tests showed the pair was exposed to Novichok, the same type of nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March. Police suspect Rowley and Sturgess handled an item from the first attack, which Britain blames on Russia.
Moscow denies involvement.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "appalled and shocked" by Sturgess's death.
"Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being treated as murder," May said.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Britain's top anti-terrorism police officer, said the death "has only served to strengthen our resolve" to find those responsible.
More than 100 police officers have been working to locate a small vial or other container thought to have held the nerve agent that sickened the two. Officials say the search and cleanup operation will take weeks or even month.
Counterterrorism police are also studying roughly 1,300 hours of closed circuit television footage in hopes of finding clues about the couple's activities in the hours before they became violently ill.
Detectives want to know where the couple was to get new leads on where the contamination might have occurred.
Britain maintains the March attack on the Skripals had been ordered by the Russian government, a charge denied by representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case led to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Britain, the United States, and other countries, and tit-for-tat retaliation by Moscow.
The new poisoning has frightened some residents who thought an extensive cleanup had removed the threat of any further Novichok exposure.
Hospital officials said late Saturday that a number of people including a police officer had sought medical advice in the last week but had been found not to need any treatment.
John Glen, the Conservative Party legislator for the region, said the new poisoning has threatened an economic rebound from the slowdown caused by the attack on the Skripals.
"We need to establish quickly what they came into contact with and where," he said. "The sentiment in the city is frustration, we want to get back to normal."
Britain's interior minister visited Salisbury and nearby Amesbury, where the couple fell ill, on Sunday to reassure residents that the risk to the public remains low.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the area is open for business and urged people to visit what he called one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
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Roger Stone Poisoned with POLONIUM







Alexander Litvinenko poisoning[edit]

Lugovoy met with Litvinenko on the day Litvinenko fell ill (1 November 2006). Litvinenko died later in November from radiation poisoning caused by polonium-210, and, on 22 May 2007, British officials charged Lugovoy with Litvinenko's murder, announcing they would seek his extradition from Russia. Russia declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing that extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution. Russia said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoy but that Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoy. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoy's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions."[5]
Lugovoy had visited London at least three times in the month before Litvinenko's death and met with him four times. Lugovoy met with Litvinenko on the day he fell ill (November 1). Traces of polonium-210 have been discovered in all three hotels where Lugovoy stayed after flying to London on 16 October, in the Pescatori restaurant, Dover StreetMayfair, where Lugovoy is understood to have dined before 1 November and aboard two aircraft on which he had traveled.[6] He was treated at a Moscow hospital for suspected radiation poisoning but declined to say whether he had been contaminated with polonium-210, the substance that led to Litvinenko's death on 23 November 2006.[7]

Timeline of Lugovoy involvement in Litvinenko poisoning[edit]

  • On 30 November 2006, Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili described Lugovoy as a "close friend" with whom he had been working for thirteen years. He said he hoped Lugovoy was innocent, but added that there is "no such thing as a former KGB agent."
  • On 4 December 2006, Lugovoy visited a hospital in Moscow for medical tests.
  • On 9 December 2006, Lugovoy was released from the hospital and declared to be in "satisfactory condition."[7]
  • On 26 January 2007, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Lugovoy be returned to the United Kingdom to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder.[8]
  • On 5 February 2007, Boris Berezovsky told the BBC that on his deathbed, Litvinenko said that Lugovoy was responsible for his poisoning.[9]
  • On 22 May 2007, Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions announced that Britain would seek extradition of Lugovoy and attempt to charge him with murdering Litvinenko. Russia has previously stated that it has no right to allow the extradition of any Russian citizen for trial in Britain.[10]
  • On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office formally submitted a request for Lugovoy's extradition to the Russian Government.[11] This was confirmed by both the British embassy in Moscowand the Russian prosecution office.
    • Lugovoy is quoted as saying he is a "victim not a perpetrator of a radiation attack", and he has called the charges "politically motivated".
    • The Constitution of Russia, like that of FranceGermanyAustriaChina, and Japan, forbids extradition of its citizens to foreign countries (Art. 61), so the request cannot be fulfilled.[12]Russian citizens can be convicted of crimes committed abroad by Russian courts if foreign law agencies provide necessary evidence.
  • On 31 May 2007, Lugovoy held a news conference at which he accused MI6 of attempting to recruit him and blamed either MI6, the Russian mafia, or fugitive Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky for the killing.[13]
  • On 4 July 2007, Russia formally declined a UK request to extradite Lugovoy.[14]
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