MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) — Russian MP Andrei Lugovoi said British security services are delaying his case by not sending it to court.
He said there is no change in his case up to date.
“The British coroner's court continues to delay the case even though the judicial investigation was supposed to begin in April, but it never did,” Lugovoi said on Wednesday, July 4.
“According to the information we have, the delay is to be blamed on law enforcement agencies and MI-5 and MI-6 that have failed to send the materials to court,” Lugovoi, who is the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Counter-Corruption Work, said.
Litvinenko is incriminated in former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko’s death in Britain.
The British authorities claim that Lugovoi is responsible for Litvinenko's death.
If Britain gave Russia the proof that Russian MP Lugovoi killed Litvinenko in London in 2006 by poisoning him with radioactive polonium-210, Russia would study it, the spokesman for the Russian Embassy in London, Konstantin Shlykov, said, earlier.
“First of all, the statement that Mr. Litvinenko was killed by way of execution ordered by the state and orchestrated by Russia is not backed up by evidence. And we are confident that no such evidence has ever existed. Otherwise, it would have been given to us,” Shlykov said in a letter to The Sundy Times that published an article titled “Russia Murdered Litvinenko, Says Top Prosecutor” in October of last year.
“Second, when the author says that Russia refuses to extradite Lugovoi who allegedly killed Mr. Litvinenko, he [the author of the article] did not bother to mention that according to its constitutional norms Russia does not extradite its citizens to other countries for court investigations on their territory, irrespective whether it is Lugovoi or someone else. However, using this trick the author tries to create the impression that the Russian state is sort of 'covering up' for Mr. Lugovoi. But this is not true. If the British investigation bodies have well grounded proof of Lugovoi's guilt, Russian law enforcement agencies are ready to study them. However no arguments to this effect have been presented since Litvinenko's assassination in London Moreover, the British authorities rejected the benefit of questioning Mr. Lugovoi in Russia. And he, by the way, has repeatedly said publicly that he is ready to answer questions in this case. It would be legitimate to ask why [the British side rejected such an opportunity],” the spokesman said.
Litvinenko died of polonium 210 poisoning at a London hospital in November 2006.
British investigators consider Lugovoi to be the main suspect in the case, but he flatly denies all charges.