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WORLD NEWS Thursday 6 sepTember 2018

UK charges 2 Russians in absentia in nerve agent attack

By JILL LAWLESS to the contents.
Associated Press The Organization for the
LONDON (AP) — Britain Prohibition of Chemical
deepened its diplomat- Weapons confirmed Tues-
ic feud with Moscow on day that Rowley and Stur-
Wednesday, charging two gess were also exposed to
men it says are Russian Novichok.
military intelligence offi- Police are still trying to de-
cers with the nerve-agent termine where the bottle
poisoning of Sergei Skripal, was between the Skripal
a double agent who be- poisoning in March and
trayed the service by spy- its discovery by Rowley on
ing for the West. June 27. As a result, Basu
But U.K. authorities ac- said, police weren't yet
knowledged there was ready to lay charges in the
little chance Russia would second poisoning, though
hand over the suspects, Al- the two Russians are the
exander Petrov and Ruslan prime suspects.
Boshirov, to face justice in The case, with its chilling
Britain. cloak-and-dagger details,
Prime Minister Theresa May echoes the 2006 murder
said the use of a chemi- of Alexander Litvinenko,
cal weapon in the city of a former Russian agent
Salisbury, which left a Brit- who died after drinking
ish woman dead and four This combination photo made available by the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, tea laced with radioactive
people, including Skripal shows Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov. polonium-210 at a London
and his daughter, seriously Associated Press hotel. Britain spent years
ill, was carried out by offi- trying in vain to prosecute
cers of the GRU intelligence Prosecution Service said spent weeks hospitalized in days before the Skripals the prime suspects, Andrei
service and almost certain- the U.K. wouldn't ask Mos- critical condition and are were poisoned. Basu said Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun.
ly approved "at a senior cow to hand the men over now recovering in a secret the passports were genuine A British inquiry concluded
level of the Russian state." because Russian law for- location for their own pro- but the names were prob- that Litvinenko had been
"This was not a rogue oper- bids extradition of its citi- tection. A police officer, ably aliases, and appealed killed at the behest of the
ation," she told lawmakers zens. Britain has obtained Nick Bailey, was also hospi- to the public to help iden- Russian state, probably with
after police released pho- domestic and European talized. tify the men. the knowledge of President
tos of the suspects as they arrest warrants for the sus- British authorities and the Police revealed that traces Vladimir Putin.
traveled through London pects, meaning they can international chemical of Novichok were found Russian defense and secu-
and Salisbury before fly- be detained if they leave weapons watchdog say at a hotel in London's east rity analyst Pavel Felgen-
ing back to Moscow from Russia for another Europe- the victims were exposed end where the men spent hauer said authorization to
Heathrow Airport on the an country. to Novichok, a type of mil- two nights. attack the Skripals had also
evening of March 4, hours Neil Basu, Britain's top po- itary-grade nerve agent Police didn't test the bud- likely come "from the very
after the Skripals were poi- lice counterterrorism offi- developed by the Soviet get City Stay Hotel for Novi- top."
soned. cer, conceded it was "very, Union during the Cold War. chok until two months after "This is a message to the
Moscow strongly denies very unlikely" police would The poisoning ignited a the attack, but Basu said Russian intelligence com-
involvement in the attack, be in a position to arrest diplomatic confrontation in the tiny quantity of nerve munity and spy community
and Russian officials said them any time soon. which hundreds of envoys agent found there did not that you do not sell out Pu-
they did not recognize the But, he said, "we will never were expelled by both Rus- pose a risk to other guests. tin to the West or there are
suspects. give up." sia and Western nations. Police believe the nerve going to be serious conse-
Russian Foreign Minis- Sergei Skripal, 67, is a former Six months after the chemi- agent was smuggled to quences," he said.
try spokeswoman Maria colonel in the GRU who was cal weapons attack rocked Britain in a counterfeit Nina Western officials say Rus-
Zakharova said the names convicted in 2006 of spying the quiet cathedral city, Ricci perfume bottle and sia's intelligence services
and images of Petrov and for Britain and imprisoned. police released new details sprayed on the front door have grown increasingly
Boshirov "say nothing to us." He was freed in a 2010 spy about what Basu called of Sergei Skripal's house. aggressive in their overseas
British prosecutors said the swap and settled in the U.K. "one of the most complex More than three months activities. Members of the
two were being charged in Skripal and his 33-year-old investigations" the force later, the bottle was found GRU have been indicted
absentia with conspiracy to daughter Yulia were found had ever seen. by a local man, 48-year- in the U.S. for hacking the
murder, attempted murder unconscious on a bench Police say Petrov and Boshi- old Charlie Rowley. He was Democratic Party and Hill-
and use of the nerve agent in Salisbury, 90 miles (145 rov, both about 40, flew hospitalized and his girl- ary Clinton's campaign
Novichok. kilometers) southwest of from Moscow to London friend Dawn Sturgess, 44, during the 2016 U.S. presi-
Sue Hemming of the Crown London, on March 4. They on Russian passports two died after being exposed dential election.q