GERMANY: Four people connected to Russian ex-spy contact taken to German hospital "as precaution."

German authorities have taken four people to a special hospital ward for patients with radiation sickness in Hamburg on Monday (December 11) in connection with a Russian associate of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko. The ex-wife of 41-year-old Dmitry Kovtun, her partner and their two small children were brought to the city's St. Georg hospital, according to a police spokesman. "As a precautionary measure we took the four people affected from their hotel in Elmshorn to the regional centre for radiation protection here in Hamburg," the officer in charge, Thomas Menzel, told reporters at a news conference. Kovtun's ex-wife, her current partner and their two one-year and three-year-old children all tested positive for traces of polonium-210, police said. Kovtun spent the night of Oct. 28 at his ex-wife's apartment, according to police. It was still unclear if the contamination was internal or external, police said. Litvinenko died on Nov. 23 after receiving a lethal dose of polonium-210. In a statement released after his death, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing him. Moscow has strongly denied involvement but Litvinenko's slow, agonising death has sparked police investigations in London, Moscow and Hamburg, scorched Russia's reputation and revived memories of Cold War revenge tales. Kovtun is being investigated on suspicion of illegally handling polonium-210, a highly radioactive material that is potentially lethal when ingested, according to Hamburg's Chief Prosecutor.

ITN Source | December 12, 2006

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