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Moscow demands evidence from London on Litvinenko murder

Jul 23, 2007, 11:15 GMT

Moscow - The chief public prosecutor in Russia has again demanded evidence from the British police to prove the guilt of murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday. The evidence provided so far was not sufficient to prosecute Lugovoi, Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Alexander Svyaginzev was quoted as saying in Moscow by Interfax news agency. 'We are prepared to start preliminary proceedings against Lugovoi, if there's a solid basis. We are also prepared to collaborate with our British colleagues,' Svyaginzev said. According to the charge brought by the London public prosecutor, Lugovoi murdered former secret service agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium 210 in November 2006. Russian Chief Prosecutor Andrei Mayorov said the British version of the murder had weaknesses. They ignored the fact that Lugovoi and his business partner Dmitri Kovtun had himself become a victim of the poisoning. The British files did not mention whether traces of polonium had been found in places where Lugovoi stayed by himself during his trip to London. According to Mayorov's reports, the Russian police assume that Livinenko had already been poisoned by the polonium when he met Lugovoi and Kovtun and transmitted traces of polonium onto the two men on contact. The controversy over the murder case widened into a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow last week. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Moscow demands evidence from London on Litvinenko murder

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