New witness implicates Berezovsky in KGB agent murder

Moscow, Apr 2 (UNI) An unidentified witness calling himself Pyotr appeared on Russian state TV channel Rossiya last night and accused fugitive oligarh Boris Berezovksy of plotting the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Litvinenko died of poisoning from radioactive substance polonium-210 in London last November.

Pyotr appeared on the Rossiya channel with his face hidden and accused 61-year-old Berezovsky of involvement in the murder of Litvinenko because the former KGB officer knew how the exiled oligarch had obtained political asylum in Britain in 2003.

The British Scotland Yard and Russian Prosecutor General's Office is holding an enquiry into the alleged murder of Litvinenko, who in a dying declaration, accused the Kremlin for plotting his murder.

The new witness, who also lives in London, told Russian television that Litvinenko, who was allegedly his acquaintance and an associate of Berezovsky, had offered him from 2 to 40 million pounds for testifying that he had been sent to London to kill Berezovsky.

'' You just say you were sent to murder Berezovsky with poison placed in a pen,'' Pyotr quoted Litvinenko as telling him.

After he refused to cooperate, Berezovsky's associates mixed drugs in his coffee and falsified an audio with his ''confessions,'' Pyotr said.

Litvinenko later produced the audio as evidence in court which Pyotr said had secured Berezovsky the status of a political exile.

In 1998, Litvinenko himself publicly told a news conference in Moscow that he had been ordered by his superiors at the Federal Security Service (FSB) to assassinate Berezovsky, who was a senior state official at the time.

Pyotr said Berezovsky rewarded Litvinenko with financial support while he lived in London.

The 'mysterious witness' said Scotland Yard agents were guarding him at the request of Russian prosecutors because he was afraid he could be poisoned like Litvinenko.

Leading business daily Kommersant reported today that Berezovsky, who is wanted in Russia on fraud charges, said the televised interview with Pyotr was an attempt by Russian authorities to ''cover up the crime,'' making an apparent reference to Litvinenko's killing.

Scotland Yard detectives and Russian prosecutors questioned both Berezovsky and Chechen separatist emissary Akhmed Zakayev in London on Friday, in connection with Litvinenko's murder.

UNI