LONDON, October 14. /TASS/. Open hearings for the investigation into the 2018 death of British woman Dawn Sturgess have begun in the English city of Salisbury — among those taking the stand are relatives and emergency personnel who tried to save Sturgess, who died due to a poisoning agent which allegedly came from Russia.

According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergey Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, were exposed to an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018. Four months later, the British police reported an incident in the town of Amesbury where a man and a woman became severely ill due to exposure to an unidentified substance. As London’s Metropolitan Police later confirmed, it was the same nerve agent that had been used on the Skripals. The woman — 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess — died on July 8, while her partner — 45-year-old Charlie Rowley — survived.

In November 2021, the UK Home Office reclassified the investigation into Sturgess's case from a coroner's inquest to a public inquiry, allowing the judge to review a range of classified documents and address further questions regarding the circumstances of her death, particularly concerning Russia's alleged involvement. The hearings in Sturgess's case are expected to continue until early December.

Non-cooperation

London claims that the Russian government was involved in the Skripal poisoning, using the A234 nerve agent, while Sturgess was an accidental victim after Rowley gifted her a bottle of what he thought to be perfume that he found at a park. Moscow strongly rejected the allegations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent dozens of diplomatic notes to the British Foreign Office, demanding that London provide Moscow with access to the investigation and the affected Russian nationals, as well as requesting legal assistance and offering cooperation, particularly in a joint probe.