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U.K. for extradition of former KGB man for Litvinenko murder

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Britain wants Russia to extradite a former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi in connection with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, also a former Russian spy, who died in a London hospital last November after being mysteriously infected with polonium-210, a deadly radioactive material.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Tuesday recommended that Mr Lugovoi, who maintains that he is innocent, should be charged with Litvinenko's murder and tried. Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith said he agreed with the decision and it had been taken after consultation with him.

No treaty

Britain does not have an extradition treaty with Russia but Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said that she had told the Russian ambassador in London that she expected "full cooperation''.

Mr Lugovoi, a business associate of Litvinenko, was among those who met him in a Central London hotel on November 1, 2006, the day he is believed to have been poisoned.

Ken MacDonald, director of public prosecutions, said the evidence sent to the CPS by the police was "sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning. "In those circumstances, I have instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrei Lugovoi from Russia to the United Kingdom, so that he may be charged with murder and be brought swiftly before a court in London to be prosecuted for this extraordinarily grave crime," he said.

The Litvinenko case created headlines around the world and strained British-Russian relations over allegations by Litvinenko's family and friends that Moscow had a hand in his murder because of his campaign against President Vladimir Putin.

A shadowy figure with links with anti-Putin groups in Europe and America, Litvinenko was given asylum in Britain in 2000 and later became a British citizen. Shortly before his death, he directly accused Mr. Putin of being behind his poisoning.

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