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Novichok attack: UK issues arrest warrants as Russian suspects named

Police stand guard outiside the City Stay hotel in Bow, where Russians Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov stayed during the Salisbury poison attack.

Police stand guard outiside the City Stay hotel in Bow, where Russians Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov stayed during the Salisbury poison attack. Source: EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

UK police say they have "sufficient evidence" to charge two Russian nationals over the Salisbury attack.


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By Carlo Oreglia

Source: SBS



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UK police say they have "sufficient evidence" to charge two Russian nationals over the Salisbury attack.


Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that two Russian spies carried out a nerve agent attack on a former colleague on British soil, as prosecutors issued a warrant for the suspects' arrest.

Prosecutors announced charges against Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for trying to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

May told MPs the pair "are officers of the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU" - adding the attack had been sanctioned from higher up.

"This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state," May said.

 

UK correspondent Nicol Degli Innocenti tells SBS Italian why Scotland Yard decided to release the nemes of the alleged culprits.

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