Traces of radiation linked to Litvinenko case found in Germany - 1

[seemslikeadream]

http://en.rian.ru/world/20061209/56697552.html

BERLIN/MOSCOW, December 9 (RIA Novosti) - Police in the German city of Hamburg on Saturday reported finding traces of radiation in places visited by a key witness in the murder case of former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Massive radiation checks are being carried out in Britain, Russia, and Germany as part of an international investigation into the murder of Litvinenko, who died in London November 23 of poisoning caused by radioactive substance polonium 210. He defected to the UK several years ago, and was known as a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin.

No radiation has been detected in Russian spy-turned-businessman Dmitry Kovtun's Hamburg apartment, but his ex-wife's flat in the suburb of Pinneberg has proved contaminated.

Kovtun, who met with Litvinenko in London shortly before the exiled spy was taken to hospital and diagnosed with poisoning, is now reported to have been hospitalized with similar symptoms. His lawyer, however, has dismissed the reports about Kovtun's illness.

British detectives currently in Moscow for their probe into Litvinenko's murder spoke with Kovtun through Russian counterparts earlier this week. But they have still been unable to question Andrei Lugovoy, another key witness in the case, who went to see the defected spy in London together with Kovtun.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Isn't this the equivalent

of someone setting off a dirty bomb?

[seemslikeadream]

2. That's what I find so interesting

The stuff is ALL over the place. Where's the outrage! Oh but I guess there's no Muslims involved. :crazy:

on edit: I did read he converted

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. the moral of the story is don't go handling things that are strange to you...

even those things, which were once familiar, like an ex-wife.

[Eugene]

3. AP: Radiation Linked to Contact of Ex-Spy (Kovtun named as suspect)

Radiation Linked to Contact of Ex-Spy


Monday December 11, 2006 7:31 AM

AP Photo FRA106

By SIMONE UTLER

Associated Press Writer

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Traces of the rare radioactive substance polonium-210
were found at a German apartment visited by a contact of fatally poisoned ex-spy
Alexander Litvinenko - before the two men met in London, authorities said Sunday.

The polonium traces were found on a couch where Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun
is believed to have slept at his ex-wife's Hamburg apartment the night before he
headed to London for a meeting with Litvinenko last month, German investigators
said.

Tests on traces of radiation at the apartment "clearly show that it is polonium-210,"
Gerald Kirchner of the Federal Radiation Protection agency said at a news conference.

Investigators said Kovtun flew to Hamburg from Moscow with Aeroflot on Oct. 28 and
departed for London on Nov. 1. That is the day when Kovtun and at least one other
Russian met with Litvinenko at London's Millennium Hotel - and when Litvinenko is
believed to have fallen ill.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6272659,00.html

From the Washington Post...

Germans Investigate Russian in Poisoning
Radiation Found in Hamburg Predates Meeting With Ex-Agent, Officials Say

By Shannon Smiley and Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 11, 2006; Page A13

HAMBURG, Dec. 10 -- German prosecutors said Sunday that they are investigating
a Russian businessman for the illegal handling of a radioactive substance in the
days after he flew to Germany from Russia and before he left to meet a former
Russian internal security agent in London. The development is the strongest
indication so far that the plot to poison Alexander Litvinenko in London
originated in Moscow.

At a news conference in this port city, German officials said Dmitry Kovtun, who
reportedly lies sick in a Moscow hospital, flew to Hamburg from Moscow on Oct. 28
before heading to London on Nov. 1, the day he met Litvinenko at a bar at the
Millennium Hotel.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000562.html

[seemslikeadream]

5. Thanks Eugene

:hi:

[kineneb]

6. stranger and stranger

all of this is starting to read like those Alistair MacLean spy novels...