{"id":139612,"date":"2015-08-01T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=139612"},"modified":"2015-08-01T06:18:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-01T06:18:11","slug":"vladimir-putin-ordered-killing-litvinenko-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/08\/vladimir-putin-ordered-killing-litvinenko-inquiry-hears\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin ‘ordered killing’, Litvinenko inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"
Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally ordered” the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, the inquiry into the former spy’s death has heard.<\/p>\n
Ben Emmerson QC, for Mr Litvinenko’s family, said in his closing statement that Russian state responsibility had been proven “beyond reasonable doubt”.<\/p>\n
Mr Litvinenko’s widow Marina said she believed her husband’s “murderers and their paymasters” had “been unmasked”.<\/p>\n
But the Kremlin told the BBC it did not trust the inquiry.<\/p>\n
‘Tinpot despot’<\/strong><\/p>\n Dissident Mr Litvinenko, 43, drank tea containing a fatal dose of radioactive polonium during a meeting with suspects Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi in London in 2006.<\/p>\n The Kremlin wanted Mr Litvinenko dead and provided the poison used to kill him, Mr Emmerson alleged.<\/p>\n Scientific evidence proves Mr Kovtun and Mr Lugovoi killed the former spy, he added.<\/p>\n