By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter - A Russian supergrass was lured to his death by an assassin who tricked him into leaving his English home for Paris where he was poisoned, it was claimed last night.
Alexander Perepilichnyy collapsed and died outside his home on the high security St George’s Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, hours after returning from Paris.
According to the latest theory, Mr Perepilichnyy was enticed to the French capital by an associate of a Russian crime gang, who slipped a poison derived from a rare and deadly plant into his food or drink.
During the four-day trip, Mr Perepilichnyy apparently booked two hotel rooms – one at a luxury, landmark hotel and the other at an ordinary three-star hotel. He also spent more than £800 in a Prada designer fashion store, although – adding to the mystery – whatever he bought there he never took home.
A French magistrate is understood to have begun an investigation into his possible murder, raising the prospect that Mr Perepilichnyy was poisoned at one of the hotels, in a chilling echo of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, in a London hotel.
