LONDON – An Italian security consultant who tested positive for traces of the same radioactive substance that was found in the body of a fatally poisoned ex-KGB spy has not shown any signs of illness, doctors said yesterday.
Mario Scaramella met with former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko at a London sushi bar Nov. 1. Later that day, Litvinenko reported feeling unwell, and the 43-year-old died three weeks later – his body withered, his hair fallen out and his organs ravaged.
Scaramella, 36, was “well,” and preliminary tests showed “no evidence of radiation toxicity,” said University College Hospital, where Litvinenko died and where Scaramella is having tests.
Tests Friday confirmed that Scaramella was exposed to polonium-210, the rare substance found in Litvinenko's body before he died in London on Nov. 23. But doctors said Scaramella had been exposed to a much lower level of the radioactive material.
Scaramella's Naples-based lawyer, Sergio Rastrelli, told Italy's Sky TG24 TV that the consultant was not in isolation and was meeting with doctors and police.
“It's possible he ingested or inhaled the same substance at the same place as the Russian, although fortunately in exponentially lower doses,” Rastrelli said.
Scaramella has said he did not eat anything at the sushi restaurant when he was there with Litvinenko because it was after lunchtime.
Scaramella, who had been working for an Italian parliamentary commission investigating KGB activity in Italy, told Litvinenko about an e-mail that claimed to name those who killed Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya on Oct. 7 in Moscow.
The e-mail reportedly also said Scaramella and Litvinenko, a friend of the reporter, were on a hit list.
Early editions of The Sunday Times quoted Andrei Lugovoi, another former spy who met Litvinenko on Nov. 1, as saying he also had been contaminated with polonium-210.
Lugovoi did not say whether he had fallen ill. But he denied that he and two business associates, who met Litvinenko together Nov. 1, were involved in Litvinenko's death.
“We suspect that someone has been trying to frame us,” The Sunday Times quoted Lugovoi as saying. “Someone passed this stuff on to us . . . to point the finger at us and distract the police.”
In other developments, British Airways yesterday said all three of its jetliners grounded by investigators looking into Litvinenko's death had been cleared to resume service. Small traces of radioactive substances were found on the planes.
The Health Protection Agency, which deals with public health issues in Britain, said only very low levels of polonium-210 were found on two of the planes, and that there was no risk to passengers.
Another airline, easyJet, said Scaramella flew on its planes to London from Naples on Oct. 31 and returned Nov. 3, two days after his meeting with Litvinenko. The HPA said there was no risk to the public from those flights.
In Ireland, officials said tests on the Dublin hospital where former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar was taken when he fell ill were negative for radiation poisoning.
Gaidar became violently ill during a conference in Dublin last week – an incident his aides have described as another poisoning. He is being treated at a hospital in Moscow.
