The Japan Times - Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent

EUR -
AED 3.825399
AFN 79.153772
ALL 98.736666
AMD 415.287403
ANG 1.877402
AOA 952.448759
ARS 1090.834985
AUD 1.659602
AWG 1.877301
AZN 1.773879
BAM 1.950918
BBD 2.103246
BDT 127.032085
BGN 1.954353
BHD 0.392577
BIF 3035.968151
BMD 1.041499
BND 1.409579
BOB 7.197814
BRL 6.181396
BSD 1.041698
BTN 90.061042
BWP 14.407873
BYN 3.408985
BYR 20413.370758
BZD 2.092473
CAD 1.496639
CDF 2963.063339
CHF 0.944473
CLF 0.037424
CLP 1032.625104
CNY 7.574405
CNH 7.583047
COP 4438.460457
CRC 523.891405
CUC 1.041499
CUP 27.59971
CVE 110.714893
CZK 25.152813
DJF 185.095046
DKK 7.460863
DOP 63.958481
DZD 140.701185
EGP 52.405391
ERN 15.622478
ETB 131.280745
FJD 2.408725
FKP 0.857765
GBP 0.845695
GEL 2.967827
GGP 0.857765
GHS 15.832891
GIP 0.857765
GMD 76.029524
GNF 9015.210639
GTQ 8.051849
GYD 217.831709
HKD 8.1117
HNL 26.568478
HRK 7.685788
HTG 136.030219
HUF 410.555067
IDR 16929.766548
ILS 3.691409
IMP 0.857765
INR 90.040306
IQD 1364.363046
IRR 43847.087052
ISK 146.070191
JEP 0.857765
JMD 163.450942
JOD 0.738837
JPY 163.128346
KES 134.870181
KGS 91.079163
KHR 4198.280235
KMF 492.212582
KPW 937.348773
KRW 1496.049575
KWD 0.321084
KYD 0.868123
KZT 542.644563
LAK 22704.667648
LBP 93318.266805
LKR 311.072991
LRD 203.040547
LSL 19.26565
LTL 3.075274
LVL 0.629992
LYD 5.129371
MAD 10.43556
MDL 19.427287
MGA 4952.325547
MKD 61.527275
MMK 3382.746528
MNT 3539.012042
MOP 8.356147
MRU 41.503932
MUR 48.377901
MVR 16.044292
MWK 1806.999849
MXN 21.375127
MYR 4.620606
MZN 66.55058
NAD 19.267918
NGN 1621.613087
NIO 38.225035
NOK 11.745775
NPR 144.098067
NZD 1.838236
OMR 0.400889
PAB 1.041698
PEN 3.872817
PGK 4.142028
PHP 60.981759
PKR 290.213572
PLN 4.222409
PYG 8239.379829
QAR 3.791571
RON 4.974506
RSD 117.103005
RUB 103.370761
RWF 1447.682926
SAR 3.906769
SBD 8.819417
SCR 15.731842
SDG 625.940544
SEK 11.464035
SGD 1.411538
SHP 0.857765
SLE 23.694484
SLL 21839.702882
SOS 595.18962
SRD 36.53548
STD 21556.91634
SVC 9.115188
SYP 13541.563586
SZL 19.270615
THB 35.280778
TJS 11.400894
TMT 3.645245
TND 3.328112
TOP 2.439295
TRY 37.129316
TTD 7.076325
TWD 34.071066
TZS 2629.783534
UAH 43.751107
UGX 3833.424736
USD 1.041499
UYU 45.585915
UZS 13534.272674
VES 57.522481
VND 26131.197567
VUV 123.648794
WST 2.917057
XAF 654.32261
XAG 0.033809
XAU 0.000378
XCD 2.814702
XDR 0.802595
XOF 657.185531
XPF 119.331742
YER 259.333095
ZAR 19.256229
ZMK 9374.731321
ZMW 29.036635
ZWL 335.362095
  • RYCEF

    0.1700

    7.44

    +2.28%

  • CMSC

    -0.0500

    23.5

    -0.21%

  • RBGPF

    0.1600

    62.36

    +0.26%

  • VOD

    -0.1410

    8.409

    -1.68%

  • GSK

    -0.3410

    33.439

    -1.02%

  • NGG

    -1.4300

    60.16

    -2.38%

  • RELX

    -0.2900

    49.26

    -0.59%

  • SCS

    -0.1450

    11.655

    -1.24%

  • BTI

    -0.0500

    36.68

    -0.14%

  • RIO

    -0.3650

    61.365

    -0.59%

  • BP

    -0.3000

    31.22

    -0.96%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    23.98

    -0.08%

  • JRI

    -0.0400

    12.53

    -0.32%

  • BCC

    -1.2400

    127.88

    -0.97%

  • AZN

    0.3350

    68.295

    +0.49%

  • BCE

    -0.1640

    23.226

    -0.71%

Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent
Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent / Photo: Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS - AFP

Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent

Public hearings begin on Monday at a British inquiry into the 2018 death of a woman who was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok used in an attempt to kill a Russian double agent, which plunged relations between London and the Kremlin to new lows.

Text size:

The intended target of the poison attack was former double agent Sergei Skripal, who lived in Salisbury, southwest England, and on whom Russian President Vladimir Putin had sworn vengeance.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were both found unconscious on a bench in the city centre in March 2018. They survived after intensive treatment in hospital, and now live under protection.

Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in July 2018 after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from a bottle discarded in a park that contained the deadly chemical weapon.

UK authorities believe that the agents targeting the Skripals had thrown it out.

Britain blames the Novichok attack on two Russian security service officers who allegedly entered the country using false passports. A third has been named as the operation's mastermind.

All three men are thought to be members of the Russian intelligence agency GRU.

The inquiry into the death of Sturgess in Salisbury comes with diplomatic relations between the West and Russia in the deep freeze, after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.

The first week of public hearings will take place in Salisbury Guildhall, before moving to the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London on October 28.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for the suspects, but Theresa May, who was prime minister at the time of the attack, warned justice was unlikely.

"I would hope by the end of it (the public inquiry) the family and friends of Dawn Sturgess feel it has got to the truth," she told the BBC.

But "closure to all the people affected would only finally come with justice, and that justice is highly unlikely to happen," she added.

Russia, whose constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens, has always denied culpability and called the inquiry a "circus".

The Salisbury incident resulted in the largest-ever expulsion of diplomats between Western powers and Russia, and a limited round of sanctions by the West.

Those sanctions have now been far outstripped by the West's response since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper said it was "important to remember that at the heart of this inquiry are Dawn's family and loved ones whose lives have been irreversibly changed".

"The purpose is to provide Dawn's family, friends and our wider communities in Wiltshire the opportunity to access the fullest possible information surrounding Dawn's death," she added.

The inquiry will also "bring back some difficult memories for those who were living and working in Salisbury and Amesbury in 2018," said the police chief.

T.Shimizu--JT