Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley was discharged from a British hospital on Friday as police continued to piece together how the nerve agent claimed the life of his partner Dawn Sturgess. Rowley, 45, and 44-year-old Sturgess collapsed at his house on June 30. Sturgess died on July 8 and counter-terror detectives have launched a murder probe. “Today, Charlie Rowley was discharged from hospital,” said Lorna Wilkinson, director of nursing at Salisbury District Hospital in southwest England. “Charlie has been through an appalling experience most of us could never imagine.
“Today is a very welcome milestone in his recovery.” Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed in Salisbury on March 4 after being exposed to Novichok. Both have since recovered. Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency reported Thursday that police believe they have identified the suspects who carried out the attack.Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time,” a source with knowledge of the probe told PA. “They (investigators) are sure they (suspects) are Russian,” the source added.
Government departments and the Metropolitan Police, whose counter-terrorism unit is investigating the poisoning, refused to comment on the report when contacted by AFP. But Security Minister Ben Wallace wrote on Twitter: “I think this story belongs in the ‘ill-informed and wild speculation folder’.” Britain blamed Russia for the poisoning of Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was jailed for betraying Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service. He left Russia for Britain in a 2010 spy swap.
