Foreign
GERMANY says there is enough evidence for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to start an investigation into the alleged poisoning of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday that Germany was working in that direction.
The German Defense Ministry said that it had handed lab results indicating Navalny’s nerve agent poisoning over to the foreign ministry, which, in turn, should forward them to OPCW.
The Russian permanent representative at the OPCW said nothing had been handed over so far and added that Russia would continue to insist on clarifying all the details of the case, of which it had not been made aware by Germany, with Berlin. “There are all the prerequisites for the OPCW to open an investigation.
“The German government has taken steps to provide the evidence but this is not yet complete,” Seibert said.
He added that he was unable to reveal any more information. Navalny, 44, fell gravely ill while on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20.
He was placed in a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane made an emergency landing.
Two days later, Navalny was transported to the Berlin-based Charite clinic for further treatment.
Last week, the German government said traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group were detected in Navalny’s system.
Moscow said Russian doctors found no toxic substances before he was transported to Germany and that Berlin has provided no evidence to support its claims.
Russia has asked for information on Navalny’s condition and on Aug. 27 sent a legal assistance request to Berlin, but received no response.
The Kremlin said that Russia needed access to the information before it could open an investigation.
Russia has also said that it has not produced any Novichok group substances since the OPCW verified the destruction of its chemical weapons stocks in the early 1990s.
Germany, meanwhile, admitted that its intelligence has had access to Novichok since at least the 1990s.
Russian chemist Leonid Rink, who took part in Novichok experiments in the Soviet Union, said the Navalny’s symptoms did not at all resemble those of a Novichok poisoning.
Navalny has since partially recovered and was awoken from his medically-induced coma earlier this week, according to German media reports.
Meanwhile, Berlin’s Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday it had received a request to provide legal assistance to Russia.
“Berlin’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has received a request from the legal department of Berlin’s Senate to provide legal assistance on Russia’s request for legal support and to obtain information about Alexey Navalny’s health condition with his consent,” the Prosecutor’s Office wrote on Twitter. (Sputnik/NAN)
– Sept. 11, 2020 @ 14:45 GMT |
Tags: Germany has enough grounds to start investigation into alleged Navalny poisoning – Spokesman
