European Court of Human Rights found Russia guilty of murdering dissident Alexander Litvinenko in UK

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has declared guilty this Tuesday atl Russian government for the assassination of dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after being poisoned while in the United Kingdom, a country which had granted him political asylum.

The court, which highlighted Moscow’s responsibility for his death, also ordered the state to pay compensation of 100,000 euros (approximately 117,000 USD) for the damages suffered by his wife, Marina Litvinenko, who lodged a complaint. Although the Russian government will have to pay an additional 22,500 euros (26,400 USD) for the expenses incurred, the court decided not to apply punitive damages.

The sentence was passed unanimously, with six votes for and one against. For the ECHR, Russia violated article 38 of the European Convention on Human Rights, this did not facilitate the case to be duly examined, as well as article 2.

In a statement, the court said that Russia has “failed without justification” when it comes to delivering the material that was necessary to investigate the death of the Russian dissident. She also rejected objections from the government, which objected to the use of UK court findings as evidence.

“The investigation complied with the requirements of independence, justice and transparency, and this cannot be dismissed simply because the Russian authorities have refrained from exercising their right to participate in said procedures,” the text said. between Russia and the death of Litvinenko in the United Kingdom.

The court, in turn, found that beyond a reasonable doubt Russian citizens Andrei Logovoy and Dimitri Kovtun committed the murder of the former spy of the Committee for State Security (KGB), who Polonium-210 was administered.

Despite the fact that the Russian authorities turned over to the court a series of documents on the line of investigation, the court insisted that no documentary evidence was presented to corroborate the statements of the Russian government.

For this reason, the ECHR considers that Russia has not demonstrated that it carried out an “effective” investigation capable of establishing the facts which took place to identify and bring to justice those responsible for the murder.

Litvinenko, one of the biggest opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in November 2006, three weeks after drinking green tea with polonium-210 in a London hotel just after obtaining British citizenship.

Before dying, the dissident allegedly assured detectives that Putin had ordered his assassination. Lawyers for Litvinenko’s family, who have always called his death a “nuclear attack on the streets of London”, said Russia’s involvement in the crime was the only credible explanation, and that the investigation would be successful. probably to a similar conclusion.

For its part, Russia has always rejected these accusations which link it to the death of Litvinenko and considered that the investigation had been carried out for political reasons, a procedure in which the Kremlin refused to participate.

(with EP information)

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