新湖畔网 （随信APP) | 英国人死于俄罗斯神经毒剂案的公开听证会开始进行

对斯克里帕尔的袭击是自二战以来欧洲首次使用化学武器的侵略性行为 - 版权AFP Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS

周一，英国一项调查开始就2018年一名妇女因接触神经毒剂新一代诺维乔克而死亡展开公开听证会，这种毒剂是用来暗杀一名俄罗斯双重间谍的，导致伦敦与克里姆林宫之间的关系降至新的低点。

这次毒剂袭击的目标是前双重间谍谢尔盖·斯克里帕尔，他住在英格兰西南部的索尔兹伯里，俄罗斯总统普京曾发誓要报复。

2018年3月，斯克里帕尔和他的女儿尤莉娅都在市中心的长凳上昏迷不醒。经过医院的密集治疗，他们幸存下来，现在接受保护。

三个孩子的母亲多恩·斯特吉斯，在2018年7月因喷洒自己认为是公园里丢弃的香水瓶里所含的致命化学武器而死亡。

英国当局认为目标是斯克里帕尔的特工们将其扔掉。

英国指责两名据信使用伪造护照进入该国的俄罗斯安全局官员对诺维乔克袭击负责。第三个已被列为该行动的幕后策划者。

这三人被认为都是俄罗斯情报机构军事总局的成员。

对索尔兹伯里斯特吉斯之死的调查发生在西方与俄罗斯的外交关系陷入深度冰点之际，此前莫斯科于2022年派遣军队进入乌克兰。

公开听证会的第一周将在索尔兹伯里公会堂举行，然后于10月28日转移到伦敦国际争端解决中心。

疑犯已被发出国际逮捕令，但时任首相的特蕾莎·梅警告称，正义不太可能发生。

“我希望在此之后（公开调查结束）斯特吉斯的家人和朋友感觉已经得到真相，”她告诉英国广播公司。

但她补充说：“对所有受影响的人来说，最终的封闭只有通过正义才能实现，而这种正义是高度不太可能发生的。”

俄罗斯的宪法不允许引渡本国公民，一直否认有罪，并称调查是一场“马戏表演”。

索尔兹伯里事件导致西方国家和俄罗斯之间外交官驱逐规模空前，并由西方实施了一轮有限制裁。

自2022年普京下令派遣军队进入乌克兰以来，这些制裁现已被西方的回应远远超出。

维尔特郡警察局局长凯瑟琳·罗珀表示，“重要的是记住，在这次调查的核心是多恩的家人和亲人，他们的生活被永远改变。”

“目的是为多恩的家人、朋友和威尔特郡更广泛的社区提供尽可能详尽的关于多恩去世的信息，”她补充道。

警察局长还表示，“对于2018年生活和工作在索尔兹伯里和阿姆斯伯里的人们来说，这次调查将唤起一些困难的记忆。”

The attack on the Skripals was the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II - Copyright AFP Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS

Public hearings begin on Monday at a British inquiry into the 2018 death of a woman who was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok used in an attempt to kill a Russian double agent, which plunged relations between London and the Kremlin to new lows.

The intended target of the poison attack was former double agent Sergei Skripal, who lived in Salisbury, southwest England, and on whom Russian President Vladimir Putin had sworn vengeance.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were both found unconscious on a bench in the city centre in March 2018. They survived after intensive treatment in hospital, and now live under protection.

Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in July 2018 after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from a bottle discarded in a park that contained the deadly chemical weapon.

UK authorities believe that the agents targeting the Skripals had thrown it out.

Britain blames the Novichok attack on two Russian security service officers who allegedly entered the country using false passports. A third has been named as the operation’s mastermind.

All three men are thought to be members of the Russian intelligence agency GRU.

The inquiry into the death of Sturgess in Salisbury comes with diplomatic relations between the West and Russia in the deep freeze, after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.

The first week of public hearings will take place in Salisbury Guildhall, before moving to the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London on October 28.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for the suspects, but Theresa May, who was prime minister at the time of the attack, warned justice was unlikely.

“I would hope by the end of it (the public inquiry) the family and friends of Dawn Sturgess feel it has got to the truth,” she told the BBC.

But “closure to all the people affected would only finally come with justice, and that justice is highly unlikely to happen,” she added.

Russia, whose constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens, has always denied culpability and called the inquiry a “circus”.

The Salisbury incident resulted in the largest-ever expulsion of diplomats between Western powers and Russia, and a limited round of sanctions by the West.

Those sanctions have now been far outstripped by the West’s response since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper said it was “important to remember that at the heart of this inquiry are Dawn’s family and loved ones whose lives have been irreversibly changed”.

“The purpose is to provide Dawn’s family, friends and our wider communities in Wiltshire the opportunity to access the fullest possible information surrounding Dawn’s death,” she added.

The inquiry will also “bring back some difficult memories for those who were living and working in Salisbury and Amesbury in 2018,” said the police chief.