The Litvinenko Inquiry

The Litvinenko Inquiry
Chapter 6: Who administered the poison?
Introduction
8.60 I have found that Mr Litvinenko ingested the fatal dose of polonium 210 when he
drank tea in the Pine Bar on 1 November 2006. I have also found that he did not
put the polonium 210 into the teapot himself – either by accident, or as a deliberate
means of committing suicide.
8.61 There is an obvious question that arises. If Mr Litvinenko did not put the polonium 210
into the teapot that afternoon, who did?
8.62 The Metropolitan Police officers who have investigated this case believe that
Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun poisoned Mr Litvinenko on 1 November. I heard evidence
that warrants for the arrests of both men have been issued. 7 Mr Horwell, in his closing
submissions made on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service, asserted that:
“the evidence points resolutely to Lugovoy and Kovtun and no one else as having
administered the poison which killed Litvinenko.” 8
8.63 I stress, and it is of the first importance, that I have analysed this issue, like all others
in this Inquiry, in an entirely independent and dispassionate manner. Although I have
had the great advantage of being able to consider the evidence gathered by the
Metropolitan Police, their views as to where that evidence points have been accorded
no special weight. I have approached the evidence with an open mind. I have
considered it objectively. I have drawn my own conclusions as to what the evidence
shows.
8.64 It will be helpful for me to summarise at this stage the findings that I have made.
8.65 I am sure that Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun placed the polonium 210 in the teapot at the
Pine Bar on 1 November 2006.
8.66 I am sure that they did this with the intention of poisoning Mr Litvinenko.
8.67 I am sure that the two men had made an earlier attempt to poison Mr Litvinenko, also
using polonium 210, at the Erinys meeting on 16 October 2006.
8.68 I am sure that Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun knew that they were using a deadly poison
(as opposed to, for example, a ‘truth drug’ or a sleeping draught), and that they
intended to kill Mr Litvinenko. I do not believe, however, that they knew precisely what
the chemical they were handling was, or the nature of all of its properties.
Scientific evidence indicating Lugovoy and Kovtun’s
involvement
8.69 Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun have never disputed either (a) that they met Mr Litvinenko
in the Pine Bar on the afternoon of 1 November 2006; or (b) that they ordered the tea
which Mr Litvinenko says he drank when he met them there. There is, in any event,
very clear independent evidence on both of these points (see Part 6, chapter 8).
7
Mascall 8/2-4
8
Horwell 33/61
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