European court: Russia responsible for Litvinenko killing

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has backed the conclusion of a British inquiry that Russia was responsible for the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with a radioactive material. A former agent for the KGB and its post-Soviet successor agency FSB, Litvinenko defected from Russia in 2000 and fled to London. He fell violently ill on Nov. 1, 2006, after drinking tea with two Russian men at a London hotel. He spent three weeks in the hospital before he died. His tea was found to have been laced with radioactive polonium-210. The European court’s verdict came Tuesday.