UK courts charge a third man over salisbury Novichok poisoning
British police have confirmed a third Russian man has been charged with the 2018 Novichok murder attempt on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Detectives have accused Denis Sergeev, a senior military intelligence officer who worked under the alias Sergey Fedotov, of being part of the team who deployed a deadly nerve agent which left three people critically injured and killed one more.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that all three suspects in the case “should be handed over for justice” and said the Kremlin should recognise “our sense of justice must be done is not abated,” in an interview with Sky News.
Two Russian intelligence officers, Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, have previously been identified as suspects, and are believed to have been working for Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.
It is alleged that the Skripal family became seriously ill after they were exposed to traces of Novichok poison which were smeared on their front door by Chepiga and Mishkin. It is believed that Denis Sergeev was the on-the-ground commander for the attack.
One of the officers investigating the case was also exposed to the poison and became seriously ill while a further victim, Dawn Sturgess, died after coming into contact with the substance months later.
Russia denies the allegations with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying “we decisively reject all of London’s attempt to blame Moscow for what happened in Salisbury.”
It comes as the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for the 2006 assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London.
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