NY Times
Radiation Poison Reportedly Found in 2nd Man
By By SARAH LYALL Published: December 1, 2006
LONDON, Dec. 1 - One of three men who last met the former K.G.B. officer Alexander V. Litvinenko before he fell fatally ill with radiation poisoning was himself admitted to a London hospital on Friday, the authorities said, after tests showed that he had a significant amount of radioactive material in his body.
The hospitalization of the man, an Italian investigator named Mario Scaramella, adds a further layer of confusion to the puzzle surrounding the death of Mr. Litvinenko, a vocal critic-in-exile of the Russian government. Although tests have been conducted on dozens of people who came into contact with Mr. Litvinenko after he fell ill - including the doctors who treated him - Mr. Scaramella is so far the only one to show more than a negligible amount of radiation in his body.
The Health Protection Agency, which deals with public health issues in Britain, also said yesterday that "an adult member of Mr. Litvinenko's family" who was in close contact with him during his illness - a description that apparently applies only to his wife - had tested positive for low levels of radiation exposure. But the agency added, "The levels are not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term."
Mr. Scaramella has said all along that he felt fine, that he was suffering from none of the debilitating symptoms that characterized Mr. Litvinenko's illness and that earlier tests for polonium 210, the isotope that killed Mr. Litvinenko, had turned up negative. University College Hospital, where he was admitted on Friday, said that Mr. Scaramella was "currently well and shows no symptoms of radiation poisoning."
Dr. Keith Patterson, a consultant hematologist at the hospital, said that while tests had shown the presence of polonium 210 in Mr. Scaramella's body, they were "at considerably lower levels than Mr. Litvinenko."
The health agency would not say how much radiation Mr. Scaramella had ingested, only that he had "a significant quantity" of polonium 210 in his body. Mr. Scaramella's lawyer, Sergio Rastrelli, said in Rome that his client was undergoing more tests.
Mr. Litvinenko's body underwent an autopsy today at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, a hospital spokeswoman said. The autopsy, which might help reveal how the radiation entered his system and in what quantities, was presided over by a forensic pathologist appointed by the Home Office. An independent pathologist was also present, as well as a third who had been hired by Mr. Litvinenko's family.
The results of the autopsy may not be available until next week.
All the pathologists wore protective clothing. Alex Goldfarb, a close friend of Mr. Litvinenko who has emerged as a family spokesman, said that he had been told that his friend's body would have to be sealed in an airtight container and that it was so contaminated with radiation that it could not be cremated for 22 years.
With each new development, there are more mysteries to be solved in the case, which has still not been characterized as a murder by the London police. Who gave Mr. Litvinenko the polonium 210? Where did they get it? How much was he given? How did he ingest it? What is the significance of the traces of radiation that have been found in at least a dozen places, including on two British Airways jets? Two Russian men who also met with Mr. Litvinenko on the day he fell ill had traveled on the planes.
Mr. Scaramella's role is also something of a mystery.
Mr. Scaramella was a consultant for a Parliamentary commission in Italy looking into reported connections between the K.G.B. and Italian politicians. In the process, the group - the Mitrokhin Commission, which had been created during the premiership of Silvio Berlusconi - created dossiers on a number of opponents of Mr. Berlusconi, including the present prime minister, Romano Prodi. It was disbanded earlier this year.
Mr. Litvinenko also worked for the Mitrokhin Commission, Mr. Goldfarb said, and had known Mr. Scaramella for a decade. The two met regularly in London. Their last meeting took place at the Piccadilly branch of the Itsu sushi restaurant on Nov. 1, the day Mr. Litvinenko became sick.
Flanked by bodyguards in Rome last month, Mr. Scaramella told reporters that during the meeting - in which he drank water and Mr. Litvinenko ate sushi and soup - he presented Mr. Litvinenko with e-mailed documents showing their names on a list of people whose lives were in danger from Russian criminals. Mr. Scaramella said the same criminals had killed Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist, in Moscow in October.
Mr. Scaramella has been in London for the last week. He said that he and Mr. Litvinenko were friends and that he was not a suspect in his poisoning. Mr. Litvinenko himself said on his deathbed that he believed forces working for the government of President Vladimir V. Putin were responsible, a charge the Kremlin has dismissed.
Mr. Goldfarb said that his friend was certain he had been poisoned during one of two meetings on Nov. 1 - either the one at Itsu, or another, with the two Russian men, at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair.
"It's mystery over mystery over mystery," he said. Of the news that Mr. Scaramella had tested positive for radiation, Mr. Goldfarb said, "Obviously he received a much lower dose than Alexander. He might have been an innocent bystander; he might have been a target; he might have been someone who the perpetrators contaminated after the fact, or he may himself be involved. Nobody knows."