BERLIN/MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - German prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun who was suspected of illegally trafficking radioactive materials, Kovtun's lawyer said.
Kovtun was a key witness in the 2006 murder of Russian security service defector Alexander Litvinenko. German police said at the time they were certain Kovtun had come into contact with radioactive polonium, the substance used to poison Litvinenko, before flying to Britain.
"The criminal case in Germany has been closed," Wolfgang Velov said on Wednesday after receiving an official notification from the German prosecutors.
Kovtun has hailed the decision of the German authorities as "the triumph of justice."
"We finally see how justice ultimately prevails...I have been cleared of all charges. I was always certain of the outcome of this case in Germany," he said.
The businessman expressed hope that Britain would also drop criminal charges against his business partner Andrei Lugovoi, London's main suspect in the Litvinenko murder case.
The murder of Litvinenko, an outspoken Kremlin critic who had received British citizenship soon before his poisoning, caused a major diplomatic fallout between Russia and Britain over Moscow's refusal to extradite Lugovoi, citing the Constitution.
Lugovoi, a former KGB operative who owns a multi-million dollar private security firm, was elected to Russia's parliament in December last year, as a member of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party. His status as a lawmaker gives him immunity from prosecution in Russia.
"I always believed that the case against us was a bit too thin," Kovtun said.
