British Novichok attack inquiry: Family of woman killed calls for Putin to take the stand

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A public inquiry in Britain into the killing of a woman in a suspected Russian nerve agent attack in 2018 heard from her mother Tuesday of the intelligence, humor and kindness of a daughter who "never got to say goodbye to her mom."

In a statement to the judge-led hearings in Salisbury where Dawn Sturgess, 44, was poisoned with a banned organophosphate agent, known as Novichok, in July 2018, after handling a discarded perfume bottle containing the substance, Caroline Sturgess paid tribute to her daughter and said the family found some comfort from knowing no one else died in the attack.

The incident, in which Sturgess' partner was also seriously injured -- but survived -- occurred four months after exiled former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were the targets of a Novichok attack in the same town that the British government says was ordered by Moscow.

Day two the first phase of the inquiry, which runs through Friday, heard from Sturgess family lawyer Adam Straw KC who said they would like to see Russian President Vladimir Putin called as a witness "to look Dawn's family in the eyes and answer the evidence against him."

Calling it calamitous for the family, Straw said their quiet life in the Wiltshire countryside had been torn apart by being caught up in international spy-ring rivalry.

He said it was surreal, likening the saga to a cross between James Bond and The Archers -- a long-running popular BBC Radio soap about a community in rural England.

Dominic Murphy, the counter-terrorism command of the Metropolitan Police, which carried out a three-year investigation into the poisonings, said it was the first known use of a chemical weapon to "conduct an assassination" on U.K. soil.

Wiltshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills acknowledged missteps in classifying the original attack on the Skripals as a one-off and apologized to the family for putting out information to the effect that Sturgess was a drug user.

Addressing questions from the family and the public about possible involvement of the intelligence services, Murphy admitted only that MI5, Britain's counterintelligence and security agency, launched a covert operation in the wake of the poisonings that was conducted in the background.

However, a statement from MI5 said the agency had a "history of effort against the Russian Federation," as part of its role in defending U.K. national security -- and then cited national security as the reason no further details can be made public.

On Monday, counsel to the inquiry Andrew O'Connor KC, told the hearing that the Novichok, a banned chemical weapon, in the bottle handled by Sturgess was sufficient to kill thousands of people.

He said she was an "innocent victim -- in the crossfire of an illegal and outrageous" attempt to assassinate Skripal.

"The evidence will suggest that this bottle, which we shall hear contained enough poison to kill thousands of people, must earlier have been left somewhere in a public place," said O'Connor.

"You may conclude that those who discarded the bottle in this way acted with a grotesque disregard for human life."

The Skripals are not attending due to security concerns, but in statements read out to the inquiry, Sergei Skripal said he "never thought the Russian regime would try to murder me in Great Britain " because he had received a pardon from Putin and was a free man with no convictions under Russian law.

"It is not honorable to kill people who have been exchanged [in a spy release swap] and the attack on Yulia and me was an absolute shock," adding that the regime could have killed him without any problem when he was imprisoned in Russia.

"I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me," he added.

"Any GRU [Russian Military Intelligence] commander taking a decision like this without Putin's permission would have been severely punished."

The claim is backed up by the Foreign Office which said in a statement to the inquiry that the government had arrived at the conclusion that such a sensitive attack could not have gone ahead without being approved from the top [by Putin].

"In light of the required seniority under Russian law to approve assassinations outside Russia, and that this incident concerned a politically sensitive target (Mr. Skripal was a U.K. citizen, and was targeted on U.K. soil), it is HMG's view that President Putin authorized the operation," senior FO official Jonathan Allen wrote.

British authorities charged Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia alleging the pair, traveling on Russian passports, used a counterfeit perfume bottle to spray Novichok nerve agent on the door handle of Skripal's house in Salisbury.

A third man, Denis Sergev, whom authorities say was the ground commander for the attack, was charged in September 2021 with conspiracy to kill Sergei Skripal, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and illegal possession and use of a chemical weapon.