Russia is outside of the UK jurisdiction, the Russian embassy in London said Sunday after the lawyer of the Amesbury poison victim proposed suing the Russian government for damages.
"As regards a hypothetical lawsuit against Russia, let us recall that, under the principle of sovereign equality, the Russian state is not subject to the jurisdiction of the British state, and vice versa," the embassy said in a statement.
The Mirror tabloid said Saturday that Charlie Rowley hired renowned injury lawyer Patrick Maguire to seek justice after he and his girlfriend unknowingly ingested a toxin linked to the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in nearby Salisbury. Rowley survived after 10 days in coma, while his girlfriend died.
The daily said, citing Maguire, that suing Russia was just one of the options he was weighing as his client’s greatest concern was to uncover the truth behind what really happened. Rowley wants a million pounds ($1.2 million) as side effects of the poison continue to take their toll on him.
"For our part, we fully share Charlie’s desire to establish the truth regarding his poisoning that also resulted in the death of his partner Dawn Sturgess," the embassy noted, adding that only the UK government could give answers to many questions it had in common with Rowley.
A UK woman Dawn Sturgess and her boyfriend Rowley fell ill in their Amesbury home months after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia had been found slumped on a park bench. Rowley has recovered, while Sturgess died after a week on life support and was cremated. The two were believed to have touched an object contaminated with the same substance that was used against the Skripals.
On March 4, 2018, the Skripals were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in Salisbury. London claimed they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent Novichok and accused Moscow of staging the attack, provoking a huge international scandal.