World Bulletin / News Desk

The UK Government has won a high court order that prevents the lifting of a secrecy order affecting the inquest into the death of the Russian dissident and former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko.

Coroner Sir Robert Owen had made a decision to reveal documents relating to the Litvinenko case that were kept confidential under the Public Interest Immunity Certificate. UK foreign secretary challenged this decision in the high court and managed to overturn it.

Three judges presided over the hearing. In judgment Lord Justice Goldring concluded, “The Coroner did not really explain the reasoning which drove him to decide that the need for “a full and proper inquiry” outweighed the real risk of damage to national security.”

He added, “I am driven to the conclusion that the weight the Coroner gave to the views of the Secretary of State was insufficient and amounted to an error of law.“

Lawyers representing the government had said that the documents would have damaged UK national interest.

43-year-old Alexander Litvinenko died in 2006 after being poisoned by radioactive polonium whilst drinking tea at a London Hotel. He died three weeks later after and was buried as a Muslim after accepting Islam on his death bed. His widow has always maintained that the Russian state was linked to his death.