Four Hospitalized In Germany as Part Of Radiation Inquiry

Dmitry Kovtun, who met with ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in October 2006, seen during an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio, in Moscow, in this Nov. 24, 2006 file photo. Police said that traces of alpha radiation had been found at the homes in and near Hamburg of the ex-wife and the former mother-in-law of Dmitry Kovtun. (Alexander Zemlianichenko - AP)

LONDON -- Police said four people in Germany were hospitalized Monday after showing signs that they may be contaminated by polonium-210, the poison that killed former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko. All four are connected to Dmitry Kovtun, a Russian businessman who met Litvinenko in London the day he became ill.

German police said they are investigating Kovtun, 41, on suspicion that he illegally handled a radioactive substance. They said he left a radioactive trail in Germany, after arriving there from Moscow on Oct. 28 and before flying to London on Nov. 1. Litvinenko began feeling sick Nov. 1, so the discovery of a trail of the deadly substance before that date is a significant development because it could lead police to its source.

According to Russian news reports, Kovtun is now apparently ill in a Russian hospital. But just as he emerges as a central figure in the case, his whereabouts and condition have been shrouded in mystery. German officials said Monday that they had no information on Kovtun's "current location or his state of health."

Kovtun's 31-year-old former wife, her 27-year-old boyfriend and her two children, ages 1 and 3, were sent to a Hamburg hospital Monday for further tests on "suspicion" of being contaminated, Hamburg police said. German news reports said polonium-210 was found in the bedrooms of the ex-wife's home, on the children and on the family's clothes.

German officials said Sunday that Kovtun spent the night of Oct. 28 at his ex-wife's apartment and that they had found polonium-210 on the couch where he slept. They also said traces of polonium-210 were found in a BMW that Kovtun rode in from the airport after flying in from Moscow earlier that day.

Officials said Monday that they had found traces in a second car, a Chrysler, which he rode in twice between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1. Police are also seeking to find the taxi driver who drove Kovtun to the airport for a 6:40 a.m. Germanwings flight to London on Nov. 1.

In Moscow on Monday, British detectives talked with businessman and former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoy, who with Kovtun met Litvinenko on Nov. 1 at the Millennium Hotel in London. Seven employees of the hotel's Pine Bar, where the Russians met, have tested positive for traces of polonium-210. The bar remains closed.

Kovtun spoke with British and Russian investigators last week, and afterward Russian officials said he had been found to be contaminated with a radioactive substance. Russian news reports said he is believed to be in the same Moscow hospital as Lugovoy, who is also being tested for radiation.

Lugovoy told the Russian news agency Interfax that he was questioned by representatives of the Russian prosecutors office "in the presence of Scotland Yard detectives" for three hours and that he had given "full answers to all questions asked."

Tension has developed between Scotland Yard and Russian prosecutors, who have restricted British detectives in Russia, opened their own probe of the case and said they may come to London to investigate. Litvinenko's family and friends have said they believe that Russian authorities were involved in his death; Litvinenko was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his superiors in the Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the KGB. Kremlin officials have rejected those allegations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a television interview Monday night, urged Russia to cooperate with the investigation. Discussing unsolved murder cases in Russia, Merkel said, "That's not a good sign; it must change."

Smiley reported from Berlin.