Book Claims Group Of Perpetrators Of Attack On Skripal In Salisbury Included 2-3 People

A group of supposed perpetrators of the poisoning of Russian ex-intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in the UK city of Salisbury included two to three people who might have spied on Skripal for several months, the BBC editor, Mark Urban, suggested in his book "The Skripal Files," adding that the perpetrators also needed a driver and someone to keep watch while the poison was being put on a door handle.

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2018) A group of supposed perpetrators of the poisoning of Russian ex-intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in the UK city of Salisbury included two to three people who might have spied on Skripal for several months, the BBC editor, Mark Urban, suggested in his book "The Skripal Files," adding that the perpetrators also needed a driver and someone to keep watch while the poison was being put on a door handle.

"The Skripal Files" was written by Urban on the basis of his interviews with the former intelligence officer in the summer of 2017. In the excerpts from it, circulating in the UK media earlier this week, the journalist claimed that Skripal was unwilling to admit that he had been attacked by the Kremlin and went through "psychological adjustments" when he awoke from a weeks-long coma following his poisoning. On Wednesday, the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom said it believed the book was used to replace Skripal's testimony in the poisoning case.

The UK investigators managed to determine the suspects of the attack by narrowing down the list to several people who had arrived in the United Kingdom just before the poisoning took place and left the country the next day after it, according to Urban.

Moreover, the trace of the poison and Skripal's movements before the arrival of the attackers to Salisbury had allowed the police to determine two time frames during which a perpetrator could have approached the Skripal's house door, the book continued.

The investigators had looked into everyone who approached the house on the day of the attack, Urban argued.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on March 4 with what the UK authorities said was a military-grade nerve agent. London claimed that Russia had orchestrated the poisoning. Russia has categorically denied these allegations noting, that the United Kingdom had not provided evidence to substantiate its claims. The situation led to an international row, with scores of Russian diplomats being expelled from the United Kingdom and other EU countries.

Moscow has expelled UK diplomats from Russia in response to the country's actions.

The UK Porton Down lab has subsequently said that it could not prove that the nerve agent, used in the attack, was made in Russia or determine its country of origin. The UK Foreign Office has also admitted that the conclusions on Russia's involvement in the Salisbury incident were based on the authorities' evaluations of the information, not on proven facts.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in July that Moscow had submitted to the UK authorities around 60 official requests to allow Moscow access to the investigation into the Salisbury attack and its victims, who were Russian nationals. Moreover, Moscow has offered to work together with London and carry out a joint investigation. London did not respond to these proposals, instead claiming that Russia rejected its calls for cooperation.

On September 5, UK prosecutors brought charges against two Russian citizens, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, under four articles of the criminal law, including the attempted murder via poisoning of Skripal, his daughter Yulia and UK police officer Nick Bailey. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she believes that the suspects work for the Main Directorate of the Russia General Staff of the Armed Forces (formerly known as the GRU), albeit without providing any evidence.

In an interview with the RT broadcaster and Sputnik, Petrov and Boshirov said that they had visited Salisbury, but emphasized that they knew nothing about the Skripals and worked in the fitness industry.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Skripal affair was falling apart due to the lack of evidence proving Russian involvement. The Russian authorities have emphasized that the investigation into the Salisbury poisoning case required scrupulous analysis of data and close cooperation.