Ex-spy death probe to widen - Reid

12 April 2012

The investigation into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is set to widen over the next few days, Home Secretary John Reid said.

Mr Reid said that detectives were prepared to go outside the United Kingdom to carry out interviews as the inquiry continues to grow.

He said that he would be raising the death of Mr Litvinenko - who died apparently after ingesting or inhaling radioactive polonium 210 - with European interior ministers at a meeting on Monday in Brussels.

British health officials were also liaising with their counterparts overseas, he added.

"Over the next few days I think all of these things will widen out a little from the circle just being here in Britain," he told Sky News' Sunday Live programme.

"The police will follow wherever this investigation leads inside or outside Britain. That will continue over the next few days. The police will talk to anybody they need to inside this country or outside this country."

Mr Reid refused to be drawn on whether the Kremlin was implicated in the death of Mr Litvinenko, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, as the former spy claimed before he died. Mr Putin has strongly denied any involvement by the Russian state.

"The worst thing we can do is speculate. We will end up with egg on our face. This isn't a game of Cluedo," Mr Reid said.

He insisted that there was no cause for public concern over the radioactive traces that have been found at various places during the course of the inquiry. "People shouldn't be worried. We are tracking this and we are putting information into the public domain for the purposes of honest reassurance," he said.

"If I thought there was any risk to people arising out of some of these contamination sites we would immediately put that out."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in