Hotel bar may be site of ex-spy's poisoning
02.12.2006, 17:10
Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko probably was poisoned at the bar of a hotel here where he met with two other Russians, both of whom now are in hospitals showing symptoms of radiation sickness, health investigators said Friday.
Hotels
For weeks, investigators had zeroed in on a different location, the Piccadilly Circus sushi restaurant where Litvinenko had lunch, believing that was a likely location for his mysterious poisoning with radioactive polonium-210.
But that theory has been shaken by medical evidence that seven people who worked at the bar of the Millennium Hotel in London's upscale Mayfair district also have been exposed. The bar has been placed under quarantine.
Police have refused to say where they think the poisoning took place — a crucial question, because it may be the best clue to who did it, and why. One law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said detectives had made no final judgment.
But the medical evidence suggests that the poisoning probably took place at the bar, Dr. Michael Clark of Britain's Health Protection Agency said Friday in an interview.
"The monitoring of the staff in the Millennium bar was done for public health purposes, but it obviously has implications for the police forensic analysis — implications of timing, and possible scenarios for the administration of polonium."
Clark emphasized that he was looking only at medical evidence and not at whatever the police investigation had turned up. But the fact that seven bar employees were exposed was significant, he said, especially since no sushi bar employees, and no hospital employees, have tested positive.
"Given that Mr. Litvinenko had a very significant quantity of polonium-210 administered in some way, there are obvious possibilities that small amounts of that could have been left on, for example, a glass or a table, that subsequently led to employees being exposed. But until there is a proper forensic examination, I really don't want to speculate on that," Clark said.