{"id":353637,"date":"2018-03-24T08:34:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T07:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/court-documents-cast-doubt-on-boris-johnsons-claim-nerve-gas-is-in-no-doubt-novichok-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2018-03-24T08:34:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T07:34:54","slug":"court-documents-cast-doubt-on-boris-johnsons-claim-nerve-gas-is-in-no-doubt-novichok-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/court-documents-cast-doubt-on-boris-johnsons-claim-nerve-gas-is-in-no-doubt-novichok-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Court documents cast doubt on Boris Johnson\u2019s claim nerve gas is in \u2018no doubt\u2019 Novichok \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        Boris Johnson has insisted that British chemical lab Porton Down told him the nerve agent used to attack the Skripals was definitely Novichok. However, court documents suggest there is no such certainty.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In an interview with Deutsche Welle on Thursday, the UK foreign secretary claimed that a Porton Down scientist was <em>\u201cabsolutely categorical\u201d<\/em> in confirming to him that the source of the nerve agent, identified by the UK as A-234 \u2013 also known as Novichok \u2013 was Russian. Johnson said: <em>\u201cLet me be clear with you\u2026 the people from Porton Down, the laboratory\u2026 they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself, I said, \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 And he said there\u2019s no doubt.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4GrlDOHgIvo\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A judgment from the High Court on Thursday, however, has allowed new blood samples to be taken from Sergei and Yulia Skripal and analyzed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).<\/p>\n<p>In his judgment, Justice David Basil Williams included a summary of the evidence, revealing Porton Down\u2019s analysis. The judgment, which includes sworn court evidence from a Porton Down chemical and biological analyst, reads: <em>\u201cBlood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analyzed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok-class nerve agent or closely related agent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/421544-russia-innocent-skripal-nerve\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.03\/thumbnail\/5aabf9ecdda4c88d348b45c7.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 I-Images \"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray wrote in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.craigmurray.org.uk\/archives\/2018\/03\/boris-johnson-a-categorical-liar\/amp\/\">blog <\/a>that the evidence therefore does not unequivocally confirm that the agent is Novichok.\u00a0Murray\u00a0also claimed\u00a0that scientists at Porton Down have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/421544-russia-innocent-skripal-nerve\/\">failed to find evidence<\/a> of Russian\u00a0<em>\u201cculpability.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The judgment comes despite multiple affirmations from the UK government that the nerve gas came from Russia. The evidence given in court raises questions over the information provided by the government to parliament, the EU, NATO, the United Nations and the public.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Boris Johnson told BBC One\u2019s Andrew Marr Show that Russia has \u201cstockpiles\u201d of the chemical weapon.<em> \u201cWe actually had evidence within the last 10 years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination, but it is has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok,\u201d<\/em> Johnson said. The following day, he said in Brussels that Russia was <em>\u201cnot fooling anyone\u201d<\/em> with its \u201cincreasingly absurd\u201d denials of engineering Novichok to attack the Skripals.<\/p>\n<p>On March 13, Theresa May gave Moscow a midnight deadline to prove that they hadn\u2019t manufactured the chemical weapon used in the Salisbury attack. In a statement to the House of Commons, the prime minister said the evidence showed that Skripal had been targeted by a <em>\u201cmilitary-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.\u201d<\/em> When Moscow asked to see samples of the agent before responding to May\u2019s ultimatum, she told MPs in the House of Commons that <em>\u201cthere is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The judgment also provided an update on the condition of the Skripals. <em>\u201cIt is not possible to say when or to what extent Mr or Ms Skripal may regain capacity,\u201d<\/em> it read.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/421747-reckless-russians-nato-skripal\/\">READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Reckless Russians\u2019: BoJo and NATO head need no proof to blame Moscow<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to evidence given by the Skripals\u2019 treating doctor, \u201c[The Skripals are] heavily sedated following injury by a nerve agent.\u201d It also said that <em>\u201cMr Skripal is unable to communicate in any way\u201d<\/em> and<em> \u201cMs Skripal is unable to communicate in any meaningful way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Justice Williams ruled that<em> \u201cit is in the best interests of Mr Skripal and Ms Skripal for the samples to be taken, tested and the notes provided\u201d<\/em> to the OPCW.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/422129-boris-skripal-novichok-court\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boris Johnson has insisted that British chemical lab Porton Down told him the nerve agent used to attack the Skripals was definitely Novichok. However, court documents suggest there is no such certainty. In an interview with Deutsche Welle on Thursday, the UK foreign secretary claimed that a Porton Down scientist was \u201cabsolutely categorical\u201d in confirming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-353637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}