Russia responsible for Alexander Litvinenko’s assassination, European court rules

By James Frater and Kara Fox, CNN

Russia was responsible for killing Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent turned Kremlin critic who died in London by polonium poisoning in 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Tuesday.

The ruling found that “Russia was responsible for assassination of Aleksandr Litvinenko in the UK.”

“The Court found in particular that there was a strong prima facie case that, in poisoning Mr Litvinenko, Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun had been acting as agents of the Russian State,” it said, referring to the names of two Russian agents accused of killing Litvinenko.

The court also ruled that Russian authorities “had not carried out an effective domestic investigation capable of leading to the establishment of the facts and, where appropriate, the identification and punishment of those responsible for the murder.”

This is a developing story … more to come

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