BERLIN—German police have uncovered a radioactive trail linked to what prosecutors believe could be a possible suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in London last month. Police said on Monday a BMW used to pick up Dmitry Kovtun at Hamburg airport on Oct. 28 had traces of polonium 210, the same radioactive substance used to poison Alexander Litvinenko.
Kovtun, 41, was one of two Russians who met Litvinenko at a London hotel on Nov. 1, the day the ex-KGB agent and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin fell ill.
"Contamination was also found in a second car, a Chrysler" used by Litvinenko, a police statement said.
The radioactive trail linked to Kovtun goes further.
Kovtun's ex-wife, her current partner and their two young children all tested positive for traces of polonium 210, the statement said. Kovtun spent the night of Oct. 28 at his ex-wife's Hamburg apartment, it said.
It was unclear if the contamination of the four people was internal or external, police said. They were brought to a special hospital ward for people with radiation sickness.
Litvinenko died on Nov. 23 from a lethal dose of polonium 210. In a statement released after his death, he accused Putin of killing him.
Moscow has denied any involvement but Litvinenko's slow, agonising death has sparked police investigations in London, Moscow and Hamburg, scorched Russia's reputation and revived memories of Cold War revenge tales.
Kovtun is being investigated in Hamburg on suspicion of illegally handling polonium 210, a highly radioactive material that is potentially lethal when ingested, Hamburg's Chief Prosecutor Martin Koehnke told a news conference on Sunday.
Koehnke said there was reason to suspect that Kovtun, who was questioned by British investigators in Moscow last week, may have been among those responsible for Litvinenko's death.
Kovtun, who has denied any part in Litvinenko's poisoning, has developed symptoms of radiation poisoning, according to Russian prosecutors, but there are conflicting reports about his exact state of health.
Another Russian Questioned in Moscow
Hamburg police said on Monday an investigator from Britain's Scotland Yard had arrived to pursue the German angle in the investigation and was working out of the police headquarters.
Separately on Monday, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that Andrei Lugovoy, who was also at the Nov. 1 meeting in London with Litvinenko and Kovtun, had been questioned by Russian and British detectives.
"I was giving testimony purely as a witness," Tass quoted Lugovoy as saying on Monday. He said that Russian detectives conducted the questioning in the presence of British police colleagues. The session lasted more than three hours.
The Interfax news agency reported that Russian detectives may fly to London by the end of the week to conduct their own investigation into Litvinenko's murder.
"The exact date of their departure depends on when the work in Moscow on investigating the death of Litvinenko is finished," an unidentified source told Interfax.
A spokeswoman for Russia's Prosecutor-General confirmed that a Russian team would go to Britain if needed but she could not say when and for what exact purpose.
Feeds