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Extradition Demanded in Litvinenko Poisoning
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Britain charges ex-KGB agent Lugovoi with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, who died of radiation poisoning in November, 2006; the U.K.'s Attorney General insists Lugovoi be tried in Britain.
30 Second Summary
November 1, 2006––Litvinenko met Russian associates at the Millennium Hotel, London. Fellow ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi was one of the men present. Soon after that meeting, Litvinenko fell ill. He was suffering from radiation poisoning after ingesting a rare isotope, polonium 210. He died on November 23.
On May 22, 2007 the British authorities charged Lugovoi with Litvinenko’s murder.
Litvinenko was a Russian exile and journalist granted asylum in Britain. He was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko claimed Putin had staged terrorist bombings to raise support for Russia’s war in the satellite republic of Chechnya.
The Kremlin has ridiculed suggestions that it was behind Litvinenko's death. Those accusing the Russian government of foul play point to the fact that Litveninko is only the latest in a string of Putin critics to die under mysterious circumstances.
A recent report from the International News Safety Institute stated that Russia was second only to Iraq in terms of journalist mortality.
Now, on May 25, 2007 Britain's attorney general has informed his Russian counterpart that Lugovoi must face trial in Britain.
Russia insists that such an extradition would be unconstitutional. Russia's prosecutor general said, "If our specialists recognize Britain's suspicions concerning Lugovoi as substantiated, he will be tried by a Russian court."
On May 22, 2007 the British authorities charged Lugovoi with Litvinenko’s murder.
Litvinenko was a Russian exile and journalist granted asylum in Britain. He was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko claimed Putin had staged terrorist bombings to raise support for Russia’s war in the satellite republic of Chechnya.
The Kremlin has ridiculed suggestions that it was behind Litvinenko's death. Those accusing the Russian government of foul play point to the fact that Litveninko is only the latest in a string of Putin critics to die under mysterious circumstances.
A recent report from the International News Safety Institute stated that Russia was second only to Iraq in terms of journalist mortality.
Now, on May 25, 2007 Britain's attorney general has informed his Russian counterpart that Lugovoi must face trial in Britain.
Russia insists that such an extradition would be unconstitutional. Russia's prosecutor general said, "If our specialists recognize Britain's suspicions concerning Lugovoi as substantiated, he will be tried by a Russian court."
Headline
Despite Russia’s constitutional objections to extradition, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service "noted Russia’s signature to a 1957 convention on extradition and an agreement signed between prosecutors of both countries in 2006, several months before Litvinenko’s death, ‘to co-operate in the sphere of extradition.’"
Source: The International Herald Tribune
The New York Times blog writer wonders why Lugovoi’s associate Dmitri Kovtun wasn’t also charged with Litvinenko’s murder. Kovtun, too, was present at the Millennium Hotel meeting on November 1. According to the Times, there is "a comparable trail of physical evidence leading to both men."
Source: The New York Times
Interviewed for this British video, Litvinenko’s widow expressed her satisfaction that the suspect in her husband’s murder would be tried in Great Britain.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
After impressing on Russia's prosecutor general the importance Britain places on Lugovoi's extradition, the U.K.'s attorney general spoke to the press: "This murder was committed on U.K. soil, the evidence is in the U.K., a U.K. citizen was killed and other people put at risk and it is therefore right a suspect should face justice in a U.K. court."
Source: The BBC
Reactions
"As for the extradition issue, it is known that extradition [sic] of Russian citizens to foreign states is out of line with the Russian Constitution. There are similar provisions in other states’ legislations," the Russian ministry said, according to a Russian news agency.
Source: RIA Novosti
Key Players
Andrei Lugovoi was admitted to hospital shortly after his return to Moscow last November, after meeting with Litvinenko. Lugovoi refused to say what was wrong with him. But he was kept in an isolation unit, and there has been much speculation that he was treated for radiation sickness. This profile details Lugovoi’s career.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Alexander Litvinenko was a Russian émigré granted asylum in the U.K after he accused Putin of masterminding terror bombings in Russia that were subsequently blamed on Chechen separatists. Before he died, Litvinenko read a statement naming the Russian president as the man responsible for his murder.
Source: The Nuclear Weapon Archive
Lugovoi and Kovtun, both of whom met Litvinenko on November 1, spoke to the press in January. They sought to refute what they saw as inaccuracies in the Western media. In particular they complained about press statements that they were suspects in a murder inquiry.
Source: Mosnews
In December, at the height of the media interest in the Litvinenko case, the Russian foreign minister gave a statement saying that recent events surrounding Litvinenko’s death had demonstrated that "leading Western media" are biased against Russia.
Source: RIA Novosti
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in 1952 in Leningrad. For almost two decades, he worked in the KGB, and was elected president of the Russian Federation in 1999. He is now serving his second term as president.
Source: The Kremlin
In January, Putin denied that Litvinenko had access to state secrets. The Russian president said that Litvinenko’s exile from Russia was self-imposed and apolitical: "He was prosecuted for abuse of power, in particular for beating up detainees … and for stealing explosives."
Source: RIA Novosti
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett made a brief statement to the press: "We are seeking and expect full co-operation from the Russian authorities in bringing the perpetrator to face British justice. These points were made strongly to the Russian Ambassador when
he was called to the foreign office today."
he was called to the foreign office today."
Source: British Foreign Office
"I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr. Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning," stated Britain’s director of public prosecutions. His full statement is available at the Crown Prosecution Service Web site.
Source: Crown Prosecution Service
Background
Left-of-center British Sunday newspaper the Observer published a long investigative piece on the accusations that the Kremlin is assassinating journalists. It includes an interview with the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, granted asylum in the United Kingdom, an arch enemy of Putin and associate of Litvinenko.
Source: The Observer
Whereas the dramatic style of Litvinenko’s assassination might seem to rule out Kremlin involvement, experts say that polonium would only be available to a state-sponsored agent. A Fulbright scholar studying nuclear proliferation in Moscow has produced a summary of the technical difficulties of polonium poisoning.
Source: armscontrolwonk.com
Press Freedom in Russia
Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya was a vociferous critic of Russia’s policies in Chechnya. On October 7, 2006 she was shot dead in her apartment elevator. Suspicion in the press has been concentrated on the Russian authorities.
Source: Reporters without Borders
In March 2006, Ivan Safronov died when he fell from a fifth-floor window in his apartment block. Safronov was a journalist who had a history of upsetting the Putin administration. Allegedly, at the time of his death he was investigating Russian arms deals with Syria and Iran.
Source: The Guardian
In 2006, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists published a report stating that 13 Russian journalists had been murdered since Putin came to power. Only three of those cases resulted in arrests and trials. "But, even then, prosecutions have fallen short of convictions."
Source: The Committee to Protect Journalists
The International News Safety Institute (INSI) published a report last Tuesday, titled "Killing the Messenger," looking at violence against journalists between 1996 and 2006. The INSI findings showed that Russia is second only to Iraq in terms of the number of journalists who were killed during that period.
Source: The International News Safety Institute
History
The Litvinenko case was reminiscent of the 1978 assassination of the writer, broadcaster, and Soviet dissident Georgi Markov. He died after being stabbed by a poisoned umbrella at a London bus stop. In 2005, leaked documents showed that the assassin was a Bulgarian intelligence agent. At that time, Bulgaria was a satellite of the USSR.
Source: The BBC
Opinion
Before Litvinenko’s assassination, some Western journalists were already accusing their politicians of a cowardly reluctance to criticize Putin over the Kremlin’s seeming lack of interest in the murder of crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Source: The Guardian
According to the diplomatic editor of the London Times, the issuing of an arrest warrant for Lugovoi could have an enormous impact on relations between Britain and Russia. "At the Kremlin," writes Richard Beeston, "the British moves will be regarded as a veiled threat that relations cannot return to normal while the case remains open."
Source: The London Times
May 25, 2007––During a visit to Luxembourg, President Putin told reporters that the extradition proceedings were intended "to make Russia more pliable on issues that have nothing to do with democracy or human rights." New York Times writer Steven Lee Myers finds that this line of defense "is at the heart of what bothers many in the West about Mr. Putin's Russia," a place where the press and the courts are increasingly regarded as mere instruments of the state.
Source: The New York Times (free registration required)
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