By RIA Novosti
London/Moscow : British prosecutors have said they would seek extradition of Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi to charge him with poisoning Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko last November.
The head of Britain's Crown Prosecution Service, Ken Macdonald, said Tuesday: "I have concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Litvinenko," and vowed to "take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrei Lugovoi" to bring him swiftly to trial in London.
But spokesperson for Russian Prosecutor General's Office Marina Gridneva said a Russian citizen could be tried for crimes committed in a foreign country "only on Russian territory, if Russian laws stipulate responsibility for a similar crime."
Lawyers representing Lugovoi, who is being questioned by Russian investigators as a witness in the poisoning case, said they have not been officially notified of the charges.
Litvinenko, a former Federal Security Service officer who got British citizenship a few weeks before his fatal poisoning on Nov 1 last year, accused Russia's President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his death, a charge the president dismissed as ridiculous.
The former spy was charged with abuse of office in the late 1990s after he publicly claimed he had been ordered by his superiors to assassinate exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, wanted in Russia on charges of fraud and sedition.
Litvinenko's murder, being investigated both in London and Moscow, has strained relations between the countries.
Lugovoi, a former security-officer- turned businessman, who has vehemently denied complicity in the murder, Tuesday said the accusations from the Crown Prosecution Service were politically motivated.