Police face pressure to re-open investigation into ‘assassination’ of Russian whistleblower Alexander Perepilichnyy British police are under pressure to formally reopen their inquiry into the death of a Russian whistle-blower found collapsed outside […]

British police are under pressure to formally reopen their inquiry into the death of a Russian whistle-blower found collapsed outside his Surrey home after the French authorities began treating the case as suspected murder.

Aged 44, Alexander Perepilichnyy died suddenly in 2012 while out jogging, hours after he had returned from a trip to Paris, where police are now investigating whether he was given a rare plant-based poison used by assassins.

Bill Browder, the businessman approached by Mr Perepilichnyy shortly before his death to help expose a massive fraud involving Russian tax officials, has been interviewed for 18 hours by French detectives investigating “organised assassination” and “criminal conspiracy”, i understands.

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‘Organised assassination’

“I spent 18 hours giving evidence to what was clearly an extremely well-resourced [French] investigation. By contrast, I have never been interviewed by the law enforcement authorities in the UK concerning Mr Perepilichnyy’s death, despite multiple grounds for doing so.” Bill Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital

The French investigation is in stark contrast to the stance of Surrey Police, which concluded within six months of Mr Perepilichnyy’s death that there had been “no third-party involvement” in his demise. The force continues to insist there is no reason to investigate the death as murder.

The long-running inquest into Mr Perepilichnyy’s death, whose proceedings are now in their third year, is due to resume at the Old Bailey in London on Tuesday next week for a three-day hearing. The i understands that the 22-year-old Ukrainian model and fashion designer with whom Mr Perepilichnyy, who was married, was sharing his hotel room in Paris has been asked to give evidence at the hearing.

Salisbury poisonings

But the French investigation and the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings have brought new pressure for the criminal investigation into Mr Perepilichnyy’s death to be re-opened by police. Although the nerve agent used against ex-spy Sergei Skripal is radically different from the poison suspected to have been administered to Mr Perepilichnyy, allies of the businessman believe there is growing evidence that it fits into a pattern of killings sanctioned by or useful to the Russian state.



Read More Yulia Skripal is refusing hospital visits from Russian diplomats

Both Scotland Yard and MI5 are already conducting a “review” of the Perepilichnyy case following a request from Home Secretary Amber Rudd to look once more at up to 14 suspicious deaths in Britain which it is alleged American intelligence believe were linked to the Russian state or organised crime. It is understood that the review is ongoing.

The cases being looked at include the deaths of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, the architect of Vladimir Putin’s rise to power who death in 2013 was believed by police to have been a suicide, and his Georgian business partner, Badri Patarkatsishvili, who died from an apparent heart attack.

Tax officials

Mr Perepilichnyy, 44, an investment specialist, was due to give evidence to a Swiss investigation concerning the theft of $230m (£165m) from Mr Browder’s investment company, Hermitage Capital, by senior tax officials linked to a Russian organised crime gang.

The whistleblower claimed he had been used to help launder some of that money and told friends he had received threats shortly before his death. After Surrey Police declared his death non-suspicious, subsequent toxicology tests found traces in his stomach contents linked to gelsium or “heartbreak grass”, a poison favoured by Russian and Chinese assassins.

Mr Browder told i: “I have been interviewed by French police who are conducting a full murder investigation into the death of Alexander Perepilichnyy. I spent 18 hours giving evidence to what was clearly an extremely well-resourced investigation.

“By contrast, I have never been interviewed by the law enforcement authorities in the UK concerning Mr Perepilichnyy’s death, despite multiple grounds for doing so.”

‘Traitor’

The businessman, who led the campaign for the so-called Magnitsky laws brought in to target corruption in Russia, called for a full re-investigation of the Perepilichnyy case, saying he was likely to have been viewed as much as a “traitor” as Sergei Skripal.

Mr Browder said: “This case should now be re-opened and they should start from ground zero.

“We said from the very beginning that this death needed to be treated with the utmost suspicion. To those he upset, Perepilichnyy was seen as turning against his people. They will have seen him as much of a traitor as Skripal.”

Luxury hotel

It is understood that French investigators are seeking to piece together Mr Perepilichnyy’s movements during the 48 hours before his death on 10 November 2012, when he spent two nights staying at Le Bristol – one of Paris’s most luxurious hotels on the Champs Elysees.

The Paris prosecutor last year commenced a preliminary inquiry into Mr Perepilichnyy’s visit but it is understood this is now a full investigation into “criminal conspiracy and assassination”.

The Ukrainian-born wealthy businessman spent some £2,500 on his hotel stay, which also included taking his Ukrainian companion, who was not his wife, on a shopping trip for Louboutin shoes and a Prada handbag.

‘Stressed’

Elmira Medynska last year told the Buzzfeed website that Mr Perepilichnyy had been “very stressed” on the night before his death and drinking heavily. It is alleged that prior to his death, the businessman had been told he was on a Russian mafia hit list which contained details of his address on a private luxury estate in Weybridge, Surrey.

The i understands that Ms Medynska has been asked to provide a witness statement to the inquest but it is not clear if she will appear in person. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part.

The Old Bailey proceedings may also hear evidence concerning Mr Perepilichnyy’s dealings with a company controlled by Issa Al Zeydi, a Russian-Syrian businessman who has been placed on a list of US government sanctions for providing “material support” to the regime of Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad.

Potential Moscow-Syria link

Mr Perepilichnyy is alleged to have sent £1.3m to Balec Trading Ventures Ltd, a British Virgin Islands company controlled by Mr Al Zeydi.

The money came from Quartell Trading Ltd, another BVI company which it is alleged Mr Perepilichnyy used to launder the proceeds of the fraud against Hermitage Capital, and which could have provided a conduit between Moscow and the Syrian regime.

Surrey Police declined to comment on whether it had received a request from the French authorities for assistance. A spokesman said: “As a matter of longstanding policy, we will neither confirm nor deny any formal requests to assist foreign authorities.”