UK govt. accused of cover-up on Litvinenko
Iran Press TV
Sat May 18, 2013 4:59PM GMT
The widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has accused the British government of seeking to strike a 'secret political deal with the Kremlin' after an inquest into his death abandoned its search for the truth.
Marina Litvinenko said she was 'utterly dismayed' by a coroner accepting an application by the UK Foreign Office to keep certain information under wraps.
On Friday, Coroner Sir Robert Owen published a ruling, which revealed that he cannot hear in public evidence on the preventability of Litvinenko's death or linked to the alleged involvement of Russia in the ex-spy's poisoning.
Litvinenko, who was once an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and later a fierce critic of the Kremlin, died on November 23, 2006. He was poisoned on November 1, 2006 with polonium-210, a highly toxic radioactive isotope, at the Millennium Hotel in central London.
'The effect of the ruling is to protect those responsible for the murder of a British citizen on the streets of London, and to allow the Russian government to shield behind a claim for secrecy made by [British Foreign Secretary] William Hague with the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron,' Marina Litvinenko said.
Earlier in February, Ben Emmerson, the lawyer acting for Litvinenko's widow, accused the British government of 'dancing to the Russian tarantella' in an attempt to avoid damage to trade deals with Moscow.
SSM/HE
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