MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – An official inquiry into the death of self-exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky in the UK will be opened on Thursday, Thames Valley Police said.
HM Coroner for Berkshire Peter Bedford will open the inquest at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday at Windsor Guildhall, police said in a statement. A formal identification procedure was carried out by Berezovsky's next of kin earlier on Tuesday, it said.
An autopsy had established that the cause of Berezovsky's death was consistent with hanging, but no signs of violent death were found, police said late on Monday.
“The results of the post-mortem examination, carried out by a Home Office pathologist, have found the cause of death is consistent with hanging. The pathologist has found nothing to indicate a violent struggle,” a statement said.
Berezovsky’s close friend, Nikolay Glushkov, who had previously spoken to the businessman’s ex-wife, Galina Berezovsky, told The Guardian: "A scarf was there. There were traces of him being strangled around the neck."
Since the year 2000, the Russian businessman had resided in the UK, where he died on March 23 at the age of 67.
