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Skripal's evidence read out in Salisbury poisoning case: He said he felt safe in Britain
Skripal's poisoning testimony was read out in Salisbury. He said he felt safe in Britain
Former GRU Colonel Skripal's testimony in the poisoning case has been made public in Britain.
Written evidence from Sergei Skripal, a former GRU colonel convicted in Russia of spying for Britain, has been read out at a public hearing in Salisbury.
He said he did not know which organisation was responsible for his safety in the UK and stressed that he saw no need to settle in a closed, highly secure area after entering the country in 2010.
The former GRU colonel added that his home in Salisbury was on a quiet street and some of his neighbours were former police officers.
Last June, it was reported that Skripal and his daughter Yulia did not want to appear at the UK hearing into the Salisbury poisoning case for security reasons. According to The Guardian, the Skripals said the information they had provided to law enforcement was sufficient and they did not need to attend the meeting.
At the same time, the family of Dawn Sturgess, a British woman who fell victim to the poisonous substance, said they wanted to include the Skripals in the list of possible witnesses.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova spoke about the refusal of a former GRU officer and his daughter Yulia to appear in court in the Sturgis poisoning case. According to the diplomat, they were able to testify online.
First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexei Chepa expressed the opinion that Skripal and his daughter did not want to appear in court out of fear of British intelligence, and not Russia.
Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned on March 4, 2018. Both later recovered and were released from hospital. According to British authorities, they were exposed to the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok. A few months later, in June, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were poisoned in Amesbury. The couple were admitted to the same hospital where the Skripals were being treated. The British women were not present. Rowley regained consciousness. The man reportedly found a bottle of the suspected poison in a park and gave it to the deceased.
The Sturgess family later filed a lawsuit in the High Court in London, alleging human rights violations by Russia. The family's lawyers filed the case under the European Convention on Human Rights. The defendants in the case are the Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU). Russia has denied the allegations.
The Russian Embassy in the UK has said that the British authorities fabricated the 2018 Salisbury incident. According to the diplomatic mission, it has now become clear that London is not interested in establishing the truth. The embassy said that the UK has thus begun preparing for a confrontation between its people and its allies and "has now moved on to the military-political dimension in Ukraine."
They noted that for many years the true circumstances of what happened were never revealed by London, which refused Moscow's offer of cooperation.