An inquest into the death of a Russian whistleblower has been delayed until next year following legal wrangling over confidential documents that the UK government wants to keep secret. The inquest into the death of Alexander Perepilichny, who died in 2012 at the age of 44 while out jogging near his home in the Surrey town of Weybridge, was due to start in Woking next Monday. Perepilichny had been helping Hermitage Capital, an investment fund, to investigate an alleged multimillion-dollar Russian money laundering1 operation.
His death attracted widespread attention after it emerged in a pre-inquest hearing that traces of a rare chemical compound, which can be found in gelsemium elegans, a poisonous plant known as heartbreak grass, had been found in his stomach. Richard Travers, the coroner, said at a hearing on Tuesday that he was enormously frustrated by the turn of events. However, he had no choice but to adjourn the inquest after being told of the government s decision to seek status of public interest immunity (PII) for sensitive documents relevant to the Russian s death so they not be made public. PII status is granted in cases where the disclosure of sensitive documents would pose a threat to national security. In this case it means legal arguments about PII in the inquest will now be heard by a High Court judge this year delaying the start of the inquest until 2017.
Lawyers representing the Perepilichny family and other interested parties said they were appalled at the delay. Cecily White, barrister for the family, said that any delay was extremely distressing for Perepilichny s widow, who had been preparing to testify at the inquest next week. The delays in legal proceedings over the four years since his death had come at a real cost to his widow s health and privacy, the barrister told the hearing.
Henrietta Hill QC, barrister for Hermitage, said the additional evidence requested by the coroner that had ultimately led to the government s PII application was plainly relevant to the central question of whether this man was killed . None of the interested parties to the inquest including the family and Hermitage has seen the sensitive documents covered by PII. Legal & General, the insurance company used by Perepilichny to insure his life for millions of pounds , is also an interested party to the inquest. Its barrister, Bob Moxon Browne, said he was appalled by the delays to the hearings.
A review hearing in June had been told that Perepilichny had suspected criminal links that were being probed by Interpol. A communication from Interpol to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) in 2010 claimed that Perepilichny was suspected of fraud, money laundering and abuse of power , the June hearing was told.
In earlier hearings lawyers representing Hermitage had alleged potential parallels 2 between Perepilichny and the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy. A public inquiry into Litvinenko s death this year concluded that he was murdered by polonium poisoning on the orders of the Russian state in an operation probably approved by President Vladimir Putin.
The Hermitage barristers claimed at an earlier hearing that Litvinenko had been co-operating with Spanish prosecutors before his death, while Perepilichny had provided testimony to Swiss prosecutors about an alleged fraud but died before an investigation was completed.
Sergei Magnitsky3, Hermitage s lawyer, was jailed in 2008 in Russia for tax evasion. He died the following year from untreated inflammation of the pancreas after testifying against Russian police officials and accusing them of stealing $230m in tax rebates. It has been claimed that Magnitsky was repeatedly beaten and denied medical treatment because of his work for Hermitage. The inquest into Perepilichny s death will start on March 13 next year and is scheduled to last three weeks.
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References
- ^ Russian money laundering (www.ft.com)
- ^ potential parallels (www.ft.com)
- ^ Sergei Magnitsky (www.ft.com)