Former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko's post-mortem 'one of the most dangerous'

The body of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was so radioactive that his post-mortem was "one of the most dangerous" ever undertaken and the isotope that killed him so rare it would not have been discovered by a normal autopsy, a pathologist said.
Nathaniel Cary, who conducted the post mortem examination, told an inquiry into the death that Litvinenko's corpse was so hazardous that it was left in place for two days after he died in a London hospital on Nov. 23, 2006, from poisoning with radioactive polonium-210.
Cary said the autopsy conducted by medics in protective clothing and ventilation hoods was "one of the most dangerous post-mortem examinations ever undertaken in the Western world."

Litvinenko, a former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic, fell violently ill on Nov. 1, 2006, after drinking tea with two Russian men at a London hotel, and spent three weeks in hospital before he died.

                                                           Alexander Litvinenko
On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his assassination, and Britain has also alleged that the Russian state was involved.
Cary said he did not know of another confirmed case of polonium poisoning anywhere in the world, and the isotope's presence would not have been discovered by routine post-mortem toxicology tests. He said the cause of death would likely have remained a mystery was it not for a urine test conducted by a doctor, on a hunch, shortly before Litvinenko died.
Ben Emmerson, lawyer for the dead man's widow Marina Litvinenko, suggested that polonium's rarity made it an ideal assassination weapon.
Police Det. Insp. Craig Mascall told the inquiry that the investigation remains active, and the men who met Litvinenko -- Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi -- are still wanted for murder.
They have denied involvement, and Russia has refused to extradite them. The judge leading the inquiry has invited them to give evidence by video-link, but he has no power to compel them.
Lugovoi, a former KGB agent who is now a Russian lawmaker, told The Associated Press that evidence being presented at the inquiry was "nonsense."
"Such evidence simply does not exist because Russia wasn't involved," Lugovoi said at his office in Russia's parliament.
Lugovoi also said the inquiry was designed to "whitewash" the involvement of British intelligence agency MI6. Litvinenko's family says he was working for MI6 when he died.
Alexander Litvinenko was "eliminated" because he was exposing Vladimir Putin's intimate links with organised crime, a public inquiry into one of the most chilling and extraordinary murders in recent British history heard.
In an incendiary start to the hearing, the Russian President was charged with unleashing an "act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of a major city" which could have massacred thousands of people, to kill Litvinenko, a former KGB agent the Kremlin had come to see as a traitor.
The act of "unspeakable barbarism", said Ben Emmerson, QC, for Litvinenko's family, was carried out to hide malignant corruption at the highest level of the Russian hierarchy.
"The startling truth which will be revealed by this inquiry is that a significant part of Russian organised crime is organised directly from the offices of the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin's Russia is a mafia state.

"He had to be eliminated because he had become an enemy of the close-knit group of criminals who surround Putin and keep his corrupt regime in power", said Emmerson.
"When all of the open and closed evidence is considered together, Mr Litvinenko's dying declaration will be borne as true, that the trail of polonium traces lead not just from London to Moscow, but directly to the door of Vladimir Putin - and Mr Putin should be unmasked by this inquiry as a common criminal dressed up as a head of state."
The inquiry, which began eight years, two months, three weeks and six days after the death of Litvinenko, with the stated aim of finding the truth, was always going to be about much more than a crime.
The British Government had fought a long legal action to prevent an inquiry taking place, but changed its mind as relations between Russia and the West began to slide back to the days of the Cold War.
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, finally agreed to the proceedings five days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine with Kremlin-backed separatists being blamed. The activities of Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtum, accused of administering polonium to Litvinenko, an exiled opponent of the Kremlin, were charted in court.
Emmerson claimed that Litvinenko, as a former officer in the KGB and FSB, "had blown the whistle on a range of serious wrongdoings by Mr Putin and his allies. He was killed, partly as an act of political revenge for speaking out, partly as a message to others, and partly to prevent him from giving evidence as a witness in a criminal prosecution in Spain - a prosecution which could have exposed President Putin's link to an organised crime syndicate".
There will, undoubtedly, be a fierce backlash from Moscow if the inquiry holds Putin and senior figures in the Kremlin responsible for murder.
Litvinenko, an officer in the FSB, had also worked for MI6 and the Spanish security service. Officials in Moscow have accused western security agencies of trying to frame the Russian leadership.
The person who had done the most to set this stage, Litvinenko's widow, Marina, sat quietly, wrapped in her own grief, as the terrible account of her husband's lingering death was recounted in Court 73.
Over the next two months evidence will be given by former and current intelligence agents, police anti-terrorist officers, nuclear scientists, current affairs analysts and Marina Litvinenko. Lugovoi, a former FSB officer, and Kovtum, who had served in the Russian military, have been invited to give evidence, but so far they have shown no inclination to do so. The Crown Prosecution Service has tried and failed to get the two men extradited from Russia to face trial.
Litvinenko had no doubt who he blamed for what had happened. In an interview with the police, the stricken man had stated: "Having knowledge of this system I know that this order about a killing of a citizen from another country on its territory, especially if it is something to do with Great Britain, could have been given only by one person ... That person is the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Of course, now while he is still President you won't be able to prosecute him, because he is the President of a huge country crammed with nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons."
As he lay dying in London's University College Hospital, a statement was read out on behalf of Litvinenko, the inquiry heard. He said: "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you've done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and our people."
Who was Alexander Litvinenko?
A former Russian agent who became a Britain-based critic of the Kremlin. He fell ill on November 1, 2006 after drinking tea with two Russian men at a London hotel. He died three weeks later, aged 43.
What killed him?
Ben Emmerson, lawyer for Litvinenko's widow, said he was the victim of an "assassination by agents of the Russian state". He died of "acute radiation syndrome". The court heard he was poisoned with radioactive polonium not once but twice. Litvinenko complained of feeling ill a couple of weeks before he was hospitalised, after an earlier meeting with Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi.
What is the inquiry's purpose?
Robin Tam, the inquiry's legal counsel, said it was not a trial whose job was to determine guilt - but that it would try to follow the evidence wherever it led.
What is the evidence?
Tam said that detectives had found "a large number of positive traces" of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in London locations visited by Litvinenko and the two suspects, including in hotels, bars, aircraft and even Arsenal FC's Emirates stadium. One of the suspects had approached a contact in Germany and asked if he knew a chef in London who could slip a "very expensive poison" into Litvinenko's food or drink.
Why use polonium 210?
It is a soft metal which is so deadly an amount as small as a grain of salt would kill an adult. It is tasteless so the victim does not realise his food has been laced with it. Nor does it set off radiation detectors. It destroyed internal organs and sabotaged his body's immune system.
What is the Kremlin's view?
Moscow denies responsibility, and has refused to extradite the two prime suspects. Kovtun and Lugovoi have strongly denied involvement in Litvinenko's death. They have been invited to give evidence by video link.