Priti Patel, then the home secretary, signed a “restriction notice” on July 27 that prevents the inquiry from sharing documents with the family of Dawn Sturgess – who was killed by Novichok in July 2018 – or making them public. Mrs Sturgess, 44, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, died after being given a bottle of what appeared to be perfume by her partner, which actually contained a military-grade nerve agent. She collapsed at Charlie Rowley’s home in Amesbury, Wilts and was taken to Salisbury District Hospital where she died on 8 July 2018, without regaining consciousness. Read more: What is Novichok? Her death followed the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March 2018, although both recovered after hospital treatment. Two Russian GRU agents, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are charged with attempted murder, despite claiming on Russian television that they were on a sightseeing tour of Salisbury Cathedral. A third man, using the name Sergei Fedotov, who appears to have been the unit’s commander, is also charged with attempted murder. ‘Sensitive’ material A hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, ahead of a public inquiry, was told there was so much “sensitive” material to consider that a date for the hearings would not be set until next spring. Andrew O’Connor KC, for the inquiry, said a restraining order would normally be made by the president in a “transparent” way, having heard submissions from “key participants”. “The restriction notice, by contrast, is essentially a government ministerial directive made without consultation,” he added, addressing the president. “In most – some would say all – it should be you, not the Secretary of State, who decides what evidence can be produced in open proceedings and what material should remain closed.” However, he said the restriction notice covers “only a small set of documents which represent an extremely small proportion of the total number of documents which have been provided or provided to the legal inquiry team by Her Majesty’s Government”. It will not prevent the president from reviewing the material during closed hearings. So far, only 40 of the 28,000 documents revealed in the investigation by the government and police have been handed over to lawyers for the Sturgess family. Image: Packaging for a fake perfume bottle recovered from Charlie Rowley’s home after he and his partner Dawn Sturgess were poisoned The government is trying to remove names The government had tried to remove the names of all civil servants below the rank of senior civil servant from documents shared with the family, but the request was refused by the chairman, Lord Hughes of Obersley. Kathryn McGahey K.K. for the government, he said it was “very important that nothing be revealed that would help a hostile state or terrorist carry out another attack or make it more lethal.” He said the “vast majority” of documents revealed so far in the investigation would require restraining orders from the government, meaning they cannot be disclosed to the public. Image: Sergei Skripal’s house Ms McGahey told the hearing it was “important not to raise false hopes or expectations” about how long a “sensitivity review” is likely to take. “By all accounts, this is a slow process and requires considerable time and expertise to get right,” he added.
