The British Government has announced it is to hold a public inquiry into the 2006 death of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who allegedly died from radioactive polonium poisoning.
The family of the former KGB officer who lived in exile in London claim he had been working for British intelligence services when he died. The British government has long resisted a pressure from Mr Litvinenko's widow to hold a public enquiry and questions are now being asked about the timing of this announcment. From London, Catherine Drew reports.
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43 year old alexander litvinenko had tea at a london hotel with two russian men on november 1st 2006. Later that night he fell ill and was admitted to hospital..... medical teams worked in vain but could not save him... he had been poisoned with the highly radioactive material polonium 210.
The apparent assasination caused an outcry in Britain.
A British murder investigation pointed to Andrey Lugovoy, a member of Russia's Federal Protective Service, as the prime suspect. Russia refused an extradition request.... leading to the cooling of relations
Litvenenko, his wife and son fled to London in 2000 and were granted asylum. Litvinenko had worked for Russia's FSB secret service specialing in tackling organised crime. In 1998 he and other officers publically accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian tycoon and oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who himself fled to Britain in 2003 and was found hanged in 2013.
. Litvinenko was twice arrested on charges of exceeding the authority of his position and twice acquitted before he fled Russia with his family.
In London he wrote books accusing Russian secret services of staging terrorism. He also accused Putin of ordering the 2006 murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
When he himself was killed, Litvinenko's friends among the community of russia exiles were in no doubt who was responsible. His friend Alex Goldfarb spoke in 2007 to a collection of journalists at london's frontline club.
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Alexanders wife Marina has long campaigned for both an inquest and a public inquiry into her husbands death, something which has been resisted by the british government in light of sensitive material that would come to light.
But earlier this year, Marina Litvinenko took her fight to Britain's high court which ruled in Feb that the government had been wrong to rule out an inquiry.....
Following the governments change of heart, Marina issued a written statement.
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Now a senior judge Sir Robert Owen....who was acting coroner in the inquest that was never completed.......has been appointed. The inquiry will look into whether the Russian state was behind his death.
government officials have refused to comment on the timing of this announcement...coming as Russia is at the centre of international outrage over the downing of flight MH17 over eastern ukraine. Dr Alan Mendoza from the UK's Henry Jackson Society says the timing of the announcement is notable.
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Eight years after his death, an inquiry into who ordered the killing of Alexander Litvinenko is finally underway.
Catherine Drew, soc, London
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