{"id":11782,"date":"2018-07-19T07:58:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T11:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=11782"},"modified":"2018-07-19T07:58:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T11:58:45","slug":"salisbury-poisoning-police-identify-novichok-suspects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/07\/19\/salisbury-poisoning-police-identify-novichok-suspects\/","title":{"rendered":"Salisbury poisoning: Police &#8216;identify Novichok suspects&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Police are believed to have identified the suspected perpetrators of the\u00a0<a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-43643025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Novichok attack on a Russian ex-spy<\/a>\u00a0and his daughter in Salisbury in March, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Several Russians were involved in the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the Press Association says.<\/p>\n<p>They are thought to have been identified through CCTV, cross-checked with border entry data.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month,\u00a0<a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-44760875\">Dawn Sturgess, 44, died<\/a>\u00a0after being poisoned by Novichok.<\/p>\n<p>She and her partner, Charlie Rowley, 45, fell ill on 30 June in Amesbury, Wiltshire. He remains seriously ill in hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Police believe the incidents are linked. The UK government has blamed Russia, but the country&#8217;s authorities deny any involvement.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the latest developments, the Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko told the BBC: &#8220;Unfortunately, we don&#8217;t have official statement of the British side.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to hear that from the Scotland Yard or from the Foreign Office. A lot of versions that we hear in newspapers, they are not supported by the Foreign Office.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-wiltshire-44872639\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Global experts analyse UK &#8216;Novichok&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-43377698\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What are Novichok agents?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-44721558\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amesbury poisoning: What we know so far<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-43643025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What happened to the Skripals?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33, who were discovered slumped on a bench in Salisbury on 4 March, have been discharged from hospital and moved to secure locations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time,&#8221; a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Press Association.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They (the investigators) are sure they (the suspects) are Russian.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Met Police, who are leading the investigation, have declined to comment. The BBC has not been able to independently confirm the story.<\/p>\n<p>Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer and chemical weapons expert, said the development supported his perception that this was a &#8220;professional attack&#8221; designed to send a &#8220;political message&#8221; &#8211; adding that it happened two weeks before the Russian election.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My view is that the primary reason behind it was to send a message out to dissenters &#8211; and Sergei Skripal was chosen because he was based in Salisbury and that gave the Russians plausible deniability by saying, oh it must have leaked from Porton Down, because it&#8217;s just up the road,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Porton Down is a military research base near Salisbury.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/DE7F\/production\/_102395965_sturgesscharlierrowley.jpg\" alt=\"Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"media-caption__text\">Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley touched a contaminated item with their hands<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An inquest into the death of Dawn Sturgess\u00a0<a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-wiltshire-44882793\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was opened and adjourned<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday. Coroner David Ridley said the cause of death would not be given until further tests are completed.<\/p>\n<p>Counter-terrorism detectives have revealed they found a small bottle containing Novichok at Mr Rowley&#8217;s home in Muggleton Road, Amesbury.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-portrait no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/86FD\/production\/_102475543_amesbury_v10_640-nc.png\" alt=\"Map of locations\" width=\"640\" height=\"955\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They are trying to establish where the container, thought to be<a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-44839805\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0a bottle of perfume<\/a>, originated from, and how Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess first encountered it.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, international\u00a0<a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-wiltshire-44872639?intlink_from_url=https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/topics\/c0j915myy8kt\/russian-spy-poisoning&amp;link_location=live-reporting-story\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chemical weapons experts completed their investigations<\/a>\u00a0in Amesbury, where they sought to identify whether the substance which poisoned the couple was from the same batch used against the Skripals.<\/p>\n<p>The risk to the public remains low, according to Public Health England.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Wade, deputy director for health protection in the South West, said: &#8220;The advice remains &#8211; if you didn&#8217;t drop it, then don&#8217;t pick it up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-44883803\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Police are believed to have identified the suspected perpetrators of the\u00a0Novichok attack on a Russian ex-spy\u00a0and his daughter in Salisbury in March, according to reports. Several Russians were involved in the attempted murder of Sergei <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/07\/19\/salisbury-poisoning-police-identify-novichok-suspects\/\" title=\"Salisbury poisoning: Police &#8216;identify Novichok suspects&#8217;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,4],"tags":[5284,5251,5250,5242,2822,5283,5286,5285],"class_list":{"0":"post-11782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-uk","10":"tag-amesbury","11":"tag-charlie-rowley","12":"tag-dawn-sturgess","13":"tag-novichok","14":"tag-poisoning","15":"tag-salisbury","16":"tag-sergei-skripal","17":"tag-yulia-skripal","18":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11784,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions\/11784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}