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Russia again rejects Britain's request for Lugovoy extradition |
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07:57, July 12, 2007 |
Russia has again rejected Britain's request for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy, the main suspect in the murder of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday.
Moscow "is very astonished that Russia's observation of its democratic Constitution arouses criticism in London," spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
"Under Article 61 of the Russian Constitution, a citizen of our country cannot be extradited to another country," Kamynin said, "If concrete evidence and the facts of his guilt are produced, the issue of a trial in the Russian Federation may be considered... However, no corresponding information was supplied."
British officials earlier described the Russian Prosecutor General Office's refusal to grant British authorities' request to extradite Lugovoy as unacceptable.
Litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning by Polonium 210 in London on Nov. 23. Experts investigating his death have found radiation traces at a dozen locations and on two British Airways planes that flew the Moscow-London route.
Lugovoy, also a former Soviet KGB agent, was a business partner of Litvinenko and had met the latter in a London hotel on Nov. 1. Litvinenko fell ill on that day and died weeks later in a London hospital.
Litvinenko, who was a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the Kremlin of orchestrating his poisoning just before his death. Moscow vehemently denies the charge.
The former agent, who had been arrested several times, fled to Britain with his wife and son in Nov. 2000 and was granted asylum. He became a British citizen several weeks before his death.
Source: Xinhua
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