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UK government set to ask Russia to extradite Salisbury nerve agent attack suspects

The Government is poised to submit an extradition request to Russia (Rex)
The Government is poised to submit an extradition request to Russia (Rex)

The UK government is poised to ask Russia to extradite two people suspected of carrying out the nerve agent attack against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

According to The Guardian, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has prepared the papers required for the process and is ready to file.

While the request is almost certain to be rejected out of hand by the Russian authorities, it is likely to reignite the bitter diplomatic row that erupted following the poisoning of the former Russian spy in March.

It comes after Yahoo revealed last week that the UK Government had failed to make any contact with the Russian government or its agencies since the the murder of a British woman who was poisoned on UK soil with the deadly Novichok nerve agent more than four weeks ago.

Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were both treated for Novichok poisoning, and Ms Sturgess later died (PA Images)
Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were both treated for Novichok poisoning, and Ms Sturgess later died (PA Images)

Theresa May has been consistent in pointing the finger of blame at Moscow for the poisoning of the Skripals using Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the former Soviet Union.

Two more people, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, were subsequently treated for exposure to Novichok after Ms Sturgess reportedly picked up a discarded perfume bottle thought to have contained the agent.

Mr Rowley recovered from the attack but Ms Sturgess, his partner, died.

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The Home Office said that as a matter of long-standing policy and practice, the UK would neither confirm nor deny an extradition request had been made or received until such time as an arrest has been made in relation to that request.

In 2007, President Vladimir Putin rejected an extradition request for two Russians suspected of the assassination of the former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London using radioactive polonium.