ABC News: Charges coming against Lugovoy for Litvinenko murder; Update: Might not be extradited
posted at 7:04 pm on January 26, 2007 by Allahpundit
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There’s nothing here about a mystery triggerman but otherwise it jibes with what the Times of London reported last weekend. Spiked tea, multiple poisonings, Lugovoy in the middle of everything.
Not sure how they can claim to know the Russian government ordered the hit, though.
British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a “hot” teapot at London’s Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.
A senior official tells ABC News the “hot” teapot remained in use at the hotel for several weeks after Litvinenko’s death before being tested in the second week of December. The official said investigators were embarrassed at the oversight.
The official says investigators have concluded, based on forensic evidence and intelligence reports, that the murder was a “state-sponsored” assassination orchestrated by Russian security services…
Officials say Russian FSB intelligence considered the murder to have been badly bungled because it took more than one attempt to administer the poison…
Sources say police intend to seek charges against a former Russian spy, Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day officials believe the lethal dose was administered in the Millennium Hotel teapot.
If it was a “hot teapot,” then it wasn’t inadvertent contamination from a smuggled dirty bomb, huh?
Or is that the conclusion they want us to reach?
Update: Ummm, what about Kovtun?
Update: Scot free?
Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi, who has been mentioned in the UK media as a suspect in the poisoning of former Russian Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko, will not be extradited to the UK.
“If a request for Lugovoi’s extradition arrives from London, the following answer will most likely be given to it: the Constitution of Russia prohibits the extradition of its citizens. Russian legislation, however, stipulates that a citizen of the Russian Federation can be brought to justice for a crime committed abroad if there is evidence proving his guilt,” a source in the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office told Interfax on Friday.
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I hope there is a more complete report coming from the Brits. I also would like to know how they came to the conclusion that it was a State Sponsored hit. I always believed in my own opinion that it was a Russian hit, but I would like to know the details. The smuggling theory never held water for me.
Sammy316 on January 26, 2007 at 7:34 PM
Let’s recall this tea pot was in the open at the hotel for five weeks after the supposed poisoning. The police cannot prove this tea pot held the Litvinenko dosage (but they should be able to prove it did not – it is way too ‘hot’), They have no way to prove who contaminated the pot. But worse, they have no idea when prior to the second week in December, when they found the pot, it was contaminated. Now, if you have a smuggling ring with some spare Po-210 around and you want to keep the police focused on an assassination theory you might run by the Millenium Hotel and drop some in a nearby tea pot – after Litvinenko was poisoned.
AJStrata on January 26, 2007 at 8:12 PM
With all due respect: Give me a break.
Sammy316 on January 26, 2007 at 8:19 PM
Do posts on this subject actually get more comments than posts about Lebanon? I seriously can’t imagine any reason in hell why.
Mark V. on January 26, 2007 at 8:32 PM
Lizards with chubbies get more comments than either one.
Sammy316 on January 26, 2007 at 8:44 PM
State sponsored…we know what that means. George Bush and his special commando unit that brought down the towers are at it again. Dick Cheney used his 12 gauge autoloader in the Conservatory on Colonel Mustard. Someone call the truthers..I think we have ANOTHER impeachable offense. I bet if we do a urianlysis on Dick Cheney it will match what came out of that teapot…seriously, how long before somebody blames the US. It has to happen. It always does.
Kind of annoying though. I mean, we took a ton of grief when we blew Zarqawi to pieces; the Russians zap a former spy in another Country and they don’t even get Amber alert coverage. Give them credit for having a pair of shiny brass ones though..big middle finger to Britain nailing that guy in their back yard. Bad press happens to other people I guess…
austinnelly on January 27, 2007 at 1:03 AM
huh?
Sammy316 on January 27, 2007 at 1:28 AM
If the Russians don’t kill Lugovoy, then for the sake of the well-being and confidence of the liberal democracies and off other countries with moderate, lawful regimes, it seems best that the government of Her Britannic Majesty substitute its own judgment and execute it. In this matter, even prudent and manly republicans will defend their Queen who, in comparison to Russia’s rulers, comes to light as a most republican princess. And if the Anglosphere’s assassins cannot reach Lugovoy, it seems good that they take the occasion to solve their countries’ other Russian problems by turning them into corpus vile for Lugovoy.
I don’t know why anyone would want to have the burdens of being a prime minister or president, while passing up opportunities to unite “business” and pleasure by using cruelty well.
Kralizec on January 27, 2007 at 2:25 AM
Russia will never extradite anyone to the UK before the UK spews up the vile Berezovsky. It’s only fair — the UK has been so arrogant as to give asylum to a Russian criminal, wanted by the Russian Govt. Bezerovsky has been accused of ordering several killings in his role as boss of the Russian mafia. He also tried to orchestrate a coup in Russia. British arrogance in this matter is only going to harm the UK.
MoonbatMedia on January 27, 2007 at 7:45 AM
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