Litvinenko suspect blames Berezovsky for murder

A Russian suspected of murdering the dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko has insisted that he had been framed by the British Government and the billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky.

Andrei Lugovoy said that he was innocent but would not travel to London to defend himself against a charge that he poisoned Mr Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in November.

Mr Lugovoy, a former Kremlin KGB guard, renewed his allegation that Mr Litvinenko was working for British intelligence. He accused the British Secret Service of fabricating evidence of his involvement in the murder.

“There is no evidence, there is no proof. [color=red]Everything that the Crown Prosecution Service says is a lie inspired by the British leadership together with the special services,”[/color] Mr Lugovoy said in a video conference from Moscow with journalists in Britain.

Asked directly whether he had killed Mr Litvinenko, he replied: “I openly and honestly say that I did not kill him.”

Mr Lugovoy, who runs a private security company, blamed Mr Berezovsky for the death of Mr Litvinenko and the murder in Moscow last October of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, [color=red]He said that the deaths were part of a “thoroughly planned provocation” to damage Russia’s image.[/color]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2350300.ece