Russian Poisonings: What killed Alexander Perepilichnyy? (PART 4)

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What happens when a highly regarded botanist finds traces of poison in the victims system, but the official toxicology reports come up with nothing? How can we know the exact cause of death of Mr Perepilichnyy when the experts themselves are fighting with the evidence? And the final question is how is it possible that there is confusion with evidence if the investigation is processed properly in the first place? Lets see how the police botched the case in this final installation in our Perepilichnyy series.

POLICE INVESTIGATION 

There has been a lot of controversy and confusion in this case, and how the police handled it. The insurance company, Legal & General, that was providing life insurance for Perepilichnyy launched an investigation into his case as they suspected he died of murder. They signed on a botanist called Monique Simmonds to test whether there was poison presented in his system. She worked at Kew Gardens and had a reputation for helping in these matters.

Botanist Monique Simmonds

The life-insurance company dropped a bombshell! They had evidence that a substance associated with a poisonous plant called gelsemium was found in Perepilichnyy's stomach. This plant is famous because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote Sherlock Holmes, was experimenting with it. He was administering it to himself, with increasing doses daily and eventually stopped, as he could not stand the effects anymore. 

The side effects of gelsemium were diarrhoea, headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, feeling weak, a faint pulse and not being able to focus on objects. This plant was interfering with his motor functions, it was hindering receptors from the brain that control critical functions in your body. So, if the dose is big enough, it is fatal by making the person paralysed and short-circuiting the respiratory system.

The plant gelsemium

This plant, derived from China, is also known to be a favourite weapon for assassination and it is used by contract killers from Russia and China. So, the life-insurance company argued, this was definite proof that Mr Perepilichnyy was murdered. 

What is interesting is that Perepilichnyy's own wife, Tatiana, did her best to fight this allegation. She hired her own legal team and her opinion was that her husband died of something called sudden adult death syndrome (SADS). This is when someone dies suddenly from heart attack with no apparent causes. It is usually genetic and diagnosed post-mortem. Interestingly, it mostly occurs during sleep. Her conclusions came because when Alexander came home from Paris, she was making sorrel soup for the family. She knew that it had a bitter taste because of the sorrel. Tatiana said that her daughter and herself were eating that soup later on in the day, and they felt fine. 

Tatiana Perepilichnaya also said that she was not aware of any connection that her husband had to the US$230 million fraud, or the crime syndicate. She was also not aware that her own brother, Rishat Ismagilov, was questioned by Russian authorities on the whereabouts of his brother in law, Alexander Perepilichnyy.  Her brother is also quoted to have said that Bill Browder was a criminal and a spy. 

Mrs Perepilichnaya was so traumatised by her husband's death that she had a hard time in court to remember many details of what happened. She spoke out about harassment from the media. Tatiana also made her statements from behind a screen, as to protect her identity. I was not able to find any pictures of her on the internet, this suggests that she wants to remain unknown as much as possible. Her opinion was that ''99% of what is written'' about her husband in the media was utter lies! 

Browder, who at first was barred from accessing the police investigation, was allowed to be a party when the murder suspicion came. He criticised the police for having mishandled the investigation, saying they have not had a thorough look at the case due to pressure from Russia. The insurance lawyer was also of the same opinion. Actually, it was the life insurance lawyer, Bob Moxon Browne, who suggested that Andrey Pavlov should be a person of interest in this case, due to the alleged meetings in Paris and also the links to the Klyuev crime syndicate. 

Bob Moxon Browne, QC, UK BAR

Pavlov maintains innocence and says that he was in England just for a short while and learned of Perepilichnyy's death from the newspapers. 

The coroner requested that they be privy to any information that the British Secret Services had related to Perepilichnyy, but the government imposed a classified rule and said that there are things that the coroner should not have access to.  The High Court had to decide on this matter, and this further delayed the inquest. 

The inquest was held on 21 September 2018, and the coroner had a very difficult time to determine the cause of death of Perepilichnyy. His opinion was that it was most likely SADS, but could not confirm it 100%. It was more of a case of what probable cause had the highest percentage, and considering that the concrete evidence has surfaced that confirmed that Perepilichnyy was poisoned, this train of thought had some possibility but could not be considered for sure.  

Detective Chief Superintendent John Boshier, Surrey Police 

After the inquest, the Detective Chief Superintendent of the Surrey Police, Mr John Boshier, admitted there had been some ''organisational errors'' in the way the police handled this investigation. 

He also went on to say that what the inquest found, that the death was not suspicious, was in line with the investigation. “...This supports the conclusion reached by Surrey Police in 2013 following a full investigation which included two post-mortems and a very extensive range of toxicology tests. No evidence of any third party involvement in Mr Perepilichnyy’s death was found.''

MY OPINION AND CONCLUSION

What peaked my interest in this case is that it is not really as famous as the other Russian poisonings, like Litvinenko and Skripal. Mr Perepilichnyy, in my opinion, was murdered. I mean can we really say that he died of natural cause when he was involved in such a plot and was also due to testify in court in Switzerland around the time of his death?

And we also have those three other people that died in similar circumstances who also knew about this fraud. 

I know that this inquest is probably the last time we will hear something of Alexander Perepilichnyy's death, so we will never know what truly happened there. 

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