Berezovsky wins libel case over poisoning claim

LONDON - The British-based businessman Boris Berezovsky has won his claim for libel after being falsely named on Russian state television as the man behind the murder of the former Moscow agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Litvinenko, a strong critic of then Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 and died in London in November 2006, prompting a murder investigation that implicated Russia.

Yesterday Berezovsky, 63, was awarded £150,000 ($322,000) in libel damages against TV channel RTR Planeta and Vladimir Terluk, the man who made the allegations, which were also broadcast on satellite television in Britain in April 2007.

During the High Court hearing in London, the judge, Justice Eady, heard that the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR) had declined to take part in the proceedings.

It left Terluk, whom Berezovsky alleged was the silhouetted figure called Pyotr featured in the programme, "to face the music on his own" without legal representation.

The judge, who tried the case without a jury, said: "I can say unequivocally that there is no evidence before me that Mr Berezovsky had any part in the murder of Mr Litvinenko. Nor, for that matter, do I see any basis for reasonable grounds to suspect him of it."

Berezovsky, who now lives in Surrey, had told the court that Litvinenko, whom he knew as Sasha, had twice saved his life and that their shared history as exiles and opponents of Putin and the Federal Security Service (FSB), which replaced the KGB, had cemented their friendship.

He said he was concerned about the damage which the "absolutely outrageous" allegation would cause to his reputation.

Litvinenko's death was linked to a meeting with a group of Russians in a London hotel three years ago during which his tea was spiked with polonium.

After yesterday's ruling, Berezovsky said: "I have no doubt that, in making this programme, the purpose of RTR and the Russian authorities was to undermine my asylum status in the UK and to put the investigation of Sasha Litvinenko's murder on the wrong track.

"I am pleased that the court, through its judgment, has unequivocally demolished RTR's claims. I trust the conclusions of the British investigators that the trail leads to Russia, and I hope that one day justice will prevail."

Both RTR and Terluk, who denied he was Pyotr and pleaded justification, are liable for the damages, but the judge acknowledged there were likely to be formidable obstacles in recovering the money.

- INDEPENDENT