Thursday, May 24, 2007

Witness Saw Litvinenko Suspect in London

Via Yahoo! News -

MOSCOW - A Russian historian said Thursday that he told British police he bumped into the chief suspect in the murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London earlier than the suspect admits being in the city, but police initially doubted his story.

Yuri Felshtinsky told The Associated Press that he met the suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, together with another figure in the case, Dmitry Kovtun, near Picadilly Circus on Oct. 12.

He said he later notified Scotland Yard about the encounter. But detectives, Felshtinsky said, were initially skeptical, saying they had no record that Lugovoi and Kovtun were in Britain on that date.

"When Scotland Yard was questioning me, they told me I was mistaken," Felshtinsky said in a telephone interview from the United States. He said investigators thought Lugovoi and Kovtun had not arrived in the country until Oct. 16.

Only after Felshtinsky produced an ATM receipt from Lugovoi from the neighborhood dated Oct. 12 did detectives change their minds, he said.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said the force would not comment on Felshtinsky's statement. She said police could not discuss anything a witness might have told investigators and added that she couldn't even confirm if someone had been interviewed as a witness.

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