Continuing from Part 3, and the final instalment of this series, we have a look at the challenges that Scotland Yard faced in investigating this case. They were led to over 40 sites on the polonium trail, and all the way to Moscow and the Kremlin. As you can guess, the Russians did not give them an easy time. Read on to see what happened!
THE POLICE INVESTIGATION
The police investigation started with interviewing Alexander Litvinenko for a period of 3 days, 9 hours in total. Police could see that he was in pain, and suffering horrendously, but he never complained or asked to stop. The Scotland Yard Counter-Terrorism Unit was assigned to the investigation. Clive Timmons was the Detective Superintendent on the case.
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| Clive Timmons, Detective Superintendent from Scotland Yard |
As mentioned in the previous post, Timmons requested that a living post-mortem be conducted on Litvinenko so as to find more evidence like puncture wounds, scratch marks, etc. It was really befuddling to the police, at this point, what poison Litvinenko had been targeted with and how it was administered.
Once it came to light that polonium was found in his system, police were perplexed. They even suggested to the doctor that he meant plutonium, which was a known substance to them. The police never heard of polonium! After Mr Litvinenko's passing, the ICU room and his body were locked and sealed. This was both to protect the staff from the high radiation and to keep safe any evidence, as now this room and body were part of the puzzle of this bizarre investigation.
It became clear to the police now they had a murder on their hands. They tried to stick to the facts and figure out who Litvinenko met, where he was and what he was doing by following the polonium trail. This trail was basically a path of radiation left by the polonium, akin to the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel and the bread crumbs trail.
Over 40 places of interest were found during the investigation. These included many places where trace radiation was found. People who were deemed in danger of being exposed were sent for medical treatment. Understandably, the public was in panic and shock. The media were in a frenzy everywhere police went. They were asking the police if the public was safe, and the police could not answer it because even they didn't know how safe it was.
One thing was clear about the murder weapon, polonium is a rare substance to get a hold of, and very difficult to find. It can only be produced in a nuclear reactor in a highly-secured facility in Russia. So, therefore, it was clear where the polonium 210 came from.
While following the polonium trail, it became seen that Kovtun and Lugovoy targeted Litvinenko with polonium on 2 other separate occasions. Once at a meeting with a Mr Rilley at his offices in Grosvenor Street, London. There was found traces of polonium in his office. Another time was on the same evening, at the same itsu restaurant that Litvinenko met Scaramella on 1st November. There was found traces of polonium at a table the three men sat on the evening of 16 October 2006.
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| The itsu restaurant |
Lugovoy was staying at the Sheraton Park Lane hotel at that time, and he poured the polonium down the sink. When police were investigating the bathroom, the radiation levels were so high it was deemed to be the most nuclear scene that had been found in civilian circumstances.
VISIT TO MOSCOW BY SCOTLAND YARD
A team of officers was sent to Moscow to liaise with their Russian counterparts and to run interviews with their prime suspects, Lugovoy and Kovtun. Before leaving, they were briefed about the usual stuff to watch out for: honeytraps, bugs and sporadic room searches while they were out. Some of the police officers were smart and set ''traps'' to be able to tell whether their belongings had been disturbed while they were out of their rooms.
They first met with the Deputy Ambassador and and then Russian Chief Prosecutor Yuri Chaika, and outlined 8 objective they were targeting. The main ones, of course, were to interview Lugovoy and Kovtun. The MET police were informed that these two were now undergoing treatment in the Nuclear Hospital Number 6. This hospital was build to treat the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
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| Then Chief Prosecutor Yuri Chaika |
The police were bundled up in vans and driven around in circles for 2 hours, until they go to the hospital just before 9pm. They were told they can’t have any recording devices, and the interview could only be conducted until 10pm, no exceptions.
Kovtun was said to have been given treatment because he was exposed to polonium. Only one Scotland Yard officer was allowed in the room. The sight that greeted him in the hospital room was strange. The officer saw a man, fully bandaged up, with only his eyes visible. This could have been Kovtun or someone impersonating him, police were not able to confirm. After 13 minutes, the doctor came in and put a halt to the conversation. Only half the questions police wanted to inquire about were asked.
In Britain, the status change on this case to murder caused furore amongst the political scene. There was a lot of finger pointing to Russia, and the Russian government was not happy. They accused Britain of using this case as political ammunition against Russia.
It took 6 days for police to have an interview with Lugovoy, and this was cancelled at the last minute. At the same time, it was announced that Kovtun’s health was declining rapidly.
While in Moscow, several police officers started to feel unwell after ingesting food and tea offered to them at the General Prosecutor's office. They believe that they were poisoned. Not with something lethal, but something that could potentially deter them from the investigation and slow them down. They speculated it was something like norovirus that gave them a ''bad stomach ache'' for a day or two.
They managed to reschedule the Lugovoy interview, at the same hospital. The same thing happened, they were told no recording devices and only one hour of interview time. This session was to be conducted in Russian as Lugovoy did not speak English. When police went in the room, he looked well and healthy. He was giving the impression that he just came at the hospital because he was wearing his own clothes and there was no bandages visible. At the end of the investigation, he smirked to the officer and said in plain English, ''Good luck with your investigation!''
The last thing the team had to do was to pick up the evidence garnered from the trip. This hand over was to be made at the General Prosecutor's office. The exchange was filmed. When the MET team came back to England, they handed the package to the Forensics department for analysis. Their department head contacted Timmons and asked where the Lugovoy interview tape was. It was at this point that the coin fell to Scotland Yard that they had been duped by the Russians.
It was clear that this key piece of evidence was deliberately omitted from the evidence package.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
For a long time, British Prime Minister Theresa May did not want to allow an inquiry into this case as she was afraid that it would upset the Russian government. However, in 2014, after huge public pressure, and challenge in High Court by Marina Litvinenko, she allowed the inquiry to happen. The case was presented to High Court Judge, Sir Robert Owen.
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| Marina Litvinenko with her son's copy of The Litvinenko Enquiry |
Sir Robert Owen delivered the verdict that there is a strong probability that Lugovoy poisoned Litvinenko under the orders of FSB. Furthermore, the FSB operation was approved by Nikolai Patrushev, the then Head of FSB, and in turn by President Vladimir Putin.
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| High Court Judge, Sir Robert Owen. |
Nobody went to jail, but Litvinenko's family was happy that it had been publicly announced that Russia was responsible, and more so, that President Putin was the one who authorised this. This was a powerful statement because Putin is such a formidable public figure.
Lugovoy became a member of the federal parliament, the Duma. He was invited by the Liberal Democratic Party, which has an ultra-nationalistic view, to be the 2007 federal candidate to the Duma. As an MP, he has parliamentary immunity. In 2015, Vladimir Putin awarded him a medal for ''services to the motherland''.
Dmitry Kovtun is now a businessman in Moscow.
Both deny that they were involved in Litvinenko's death and say that there was lot of fabricated evidence and that this case was used to confirm '' … yet again London's anti-Russian position.''
CONCLUSION
After spending a monstrous amount of time reading and researching for this case, I can only conclude that there was no other explanation then to say that Litvinenko was poisoned by Lugovoy. It was clear that the polonium was administered in the tea pot at the Millennium hotel.
I hope now that Marina and Anatoly Litvinenko can move on with their life, and that this case, and the Skripal cases afterwards, can give us lessons that sometimes life can emulate a spy novel.
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