One particular piece of bad news from Russia’s Parliamentary elections: Andrei Lugovi, the man suspected of murdering ex-KGB agent (and constituent of mine) Alexander Litvinenko – was elected, and so now has Parliamentary immunity.
Not good news for those of us who want to see the case come to court and him either convicted or cleared depending on the evidence – either way, a court case would give the chance for justice to be done.
Andrei Lugovi, the man suspected of murdering ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in the radiation-poisoning case and who Russia has refused to extradite to face trial in Britain, held a press conference yesterday.
His claim was that it was all a secret conspiracy and really British secret agents killed Litvinenko (who was a constituent of mine). Yes, well!
You can read more here.
Today was the meeting I had squeezed out of the Foreign Secretary about the death of Alexander Litvinenko (Pollonium 210 radiation poisoning case). This was so that Marina Litvinenko could get an update on efforts to extradite suspect Andrew Lugovoi from Russia to stand trial for killing her husband.
David Miliband had come to the House of Commons to make a statement on the situation previously – including the expulsion of the Russian diplomats – and I had managed to catch Mr Speaker’s eye. Given the opportunity, I asked David M if he would meet with Marina as she had so many questions to ask that were unanswered. So – today was the day.
As it was a private meeting, I won’t go into the details of what took place, other than to say that during the meeting a vote in Parliament was unexpectedly called. So – David M and I ran, jumped into his car and ran again to get to the Chamber to vote.
We were voting opposite ways – and I reached the door from the Chamber to the voting lobby (MPs vote by physically walking through the yes or no lobby) as the shout went up ‘lock the doors’.
The officer of the house actually closed the door on me as I scooted through and really hurt my hand. I understand that you have to have a cut-off point for voting and close the doors – but I would have thought it inappropriate to push it closed with me in it. That is tradition turned sadistic!
Anyway – back we jumped into the car and back to the meeting. Too much excitement for one day.
Andrew Lugovoi, the man accused of murdering Alexander Litvinenko (a constituent of mine) in the radiation poisoning case, should be coming to the UK to face trial on the charges. But instead of being extradited – he is standing for the next Russian Parliament elections for the … Liberal Democratic Party. Needless to say – they are not the sister party of the Lib Dems here!
Lynne Featherstone 