Court documents have cast doubts on claims made by Boris Johnson that the nerve gas used in the Salisbury spy attack was Novichok
The UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson categorically insisted that the British chemical lab Porton Down told him the nerve agent used to attack the Skripals was definitely Novichok. but according to court documents there is no such certainty.
Porton Down analyzed blood samples from Sergei & Yulia Skripal , which tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent OR A CLOSELY RELATED AGENT.
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RT reports: In an interview with Deutsche Welle on Thursday, the UK foreign secretary claimed that a Porton Down scientist was “absolutely categorical” in confirming to him that the source of the nerve agent, identified by the UK as A-234 – also known as Novichok – was Russian. Johnson said: “Let me be clear with you… the people from Porton Down, the laboratory… they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself, I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said there’s no doubt.”
A judgment from the High Court on Thursday, however, has allowed new blood samples to be taken from Sergei and Yulia Skripal and analyzed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
In his judgment, Justice David Basil Williams included a summary of the evidence, revealing Porton Down’s analysis. The judgment, which includes sworn court evidence from a Porton Down chemical and biological analyst, reads: “Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analyzed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok-class nerve agent or closely related agent.”
Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray wrote in his blog that the evidence therefore does not unequivocally confirm that the agent is Novichok. Murray also claimed that scientists at Porton Down have failed to find evidence of Russian “culpability.”
The judgment comes despite multiple affirmations from the UK government that the nerve gas came from Russia. The evidence given in court raises questions over the information provided by the government to parliament, the EU, NATO, the United Nations and the public.
On Sunday, Boris Johnson told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show that Russia has “stockpiles” of the chemical weapon. “We actually had evidence within the last 10 years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination, but it is has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok,” Johnson said. The following day, he said in Brussels that Russia was “not fooling anyone” with its “increasingly absurd” denials of engineering Novichok to attack the Skripals.
On March 13, Theresa May gave Moscow a midnight deadline to prove that they hadn’t manufactured the chemical weapon used in the Salisbury attack. In a statement to the House of Commons, the prime minister said the evidence showed that Skripal had been targeted by a “military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.” When Moscow asked to see samples of the agent before responding to May’s ultimatum, she told MPs in the House of Commons that “there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter…”
The judgment also provided an update on the condition of the Skripals. “It is not possible to say when or to what extent Mr or Ms Skripal may regain capacity,” it read.
Niamh Harris
Britain needs to hand the sociopathic warmongers over to Russia and let our soldiers grow to a ripe old age. Fuck the crooks and their bs wars
You may want to research my memory of being 12_reading history and the recollection of princess Caroline of Brunswick who was locked out of the Prince of Wakes ,her fiancees , wedding by the Cathedral licking the door in her face to stop her objecting to the wedding .You see by locking her out the Church broke the law and so really the weddin g was invalid That’s the first point Now I do believe that Boris as a descendant precisely from said Caroline ,who was saidcto have been deemed unfit for marriage to the Future King because she was a porphyritic ,the hereditary royal malady .Such things need reflection in the context of sensibility .
You’re totally wrong, Mr. Johnson. Just go working and earn your own money, you act like a spoiled child.
Cant the Brits make Novichok? Sure they can. Who originated the poison makes no difference, who used it is the question.