The Daily Telegraph

Pussy Riot protester poisoned, say doctors

- By Justin Huggler in Berlin

A MEMBER of the Russian protest band Pussy Riot who was flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment appears to have been poisoned, doctors said yesterday.

The findings will add to concerns that Vladimir Putin’s regime is poisoning its opponents following the Novichok attack in Salisbury.

Pyotr Verzilov, a prominent critic of the Russian president and publisher of a news website that is highly critical of the Russian justice system, was flown to Berlin at the weekend after falling mysterious­ly ill.

The 30-year-old suddenly became unwell after attending a court hearing in Moscow last week. He suffered seizures on the way to hospital and temporaril­y lost his sight and hearing, as well as the ability to speak and walk.

Mr Verzilov is now in intensive care at Berlin’s Charité hospital, where doctors told reporters he is out of danger.

“The impression and the findings that we now have, as well as those provided by colleagues from Moscow, suggest that it was highly plausible that it was a case of poisoning,” said Prof Kaiuwe Eckardt, the head of internal medicine at the hospital.

Prof Eckardt said that the rapid onset on his symptoms was highly indicative of poisoning and that it is unlikely doctors would be able to identify the poison, six days after it was ingested.

There is no other plausible explanatio­n for Mr Verzilov’s condition, said Prof Karl Max Einhäupl, the director of the hospital and a leading neurologis­t.

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