European court – Russia responsible for Litvinenko killing

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday backed the conclusion of a British inquiry that Russia was responsible for the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who died in London in 2006 after drinking tea laced with a radioactive material.

A former agent for the KGB spy agency and its post-Soviet successor agency FSB, Litvinenko defected from Russia in 2000 and fled to London.

While in Britain, Litvinenko became involved in exposing corruption and links to organized crime in the Russian intelligence service.

He fell violently ill on Nov. 1, 2006, after drinking tea with two Russian men at a London hotel, and spent three weeks in the hospital before he died. His tea was found to have been laced with radioactive polonium-210.

The British inquiry concluded in early 2016 that Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun had killed Litvinenko, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “probably approved” the operation.

Both Lugovoi and Kovtun have denied any involvement in the killing.

Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, took the case to the Strasbourg-based court, vowing to get justice for her husband.

Both Britain and Russia are members of the Council of Europe, which was founded in 1949 to uphold human rights on the continent in the aftermath of World War II.

One of its main responsibilities is to oversee the work of the European Court of Human Rights, which seeks to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights.