Litvinenko widow takes case to European Court

LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) The widow of poisoned Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko has filed an initial complaint against Moscow with the European Court of Human Rights, her lawyer said today.

Louise Christian said Marina Litvinenko's complaint related to potential Russian breaches of five articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The letter was sent yesterday, the day before British prosecutors named former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy as the man suspected of poisoning Kremlin critic Litvinenko with radioactive polonium in London last year.

Christian said one of the potential breaches was of Article 2 concerning the right to life.

Asked if she was implying that Litvinenko's death was a state murder, she said it was known that Lugovoy was a former state agent and there were many questions surrounding possible collusion by the state in supplying the polonium.

''There are a lot of Article 2 questions to be answered in terms of the potential involvement of the state,'' she told Reuters.

Moscow has dismissed as ridiculous the allegation that its security services were behind the death of Litvinenko or that the Kremlin ordered it.

Other convention articles invoked in the letter to the court concern: a ban on torture and inhuman or degrading treatment; the right to a fair hearing; the right to family life; and the right to a judicial redress or ''remedy'' for a wrongful act.

Christian said Marina Litvinenko could not realistically pursue justice in Russia because her life would be in danger there, but Moscow could meet its obligations by extraditing Lugovoy to face trial in Britain.

Russia's foreign ministry and prosecutor-general's office said today that under the constitution, he could not be handed over.

In a statement, Marina Litvinenko said: ''I will not rest until I know that justice has been done.'' A spokesman for the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights said it would take several months to consider whether to accept her complaint.

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