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Ruling revives questions about DC death of ex-Putin aide
Source: Associated Press
Ruling revives questions about DC death of ex-Putin aide
By ASHRAF KHALIL
March 12, 2019
WASHINGTON (AP) — On a foggy November morning in 2015, a heavily intoxicated man showed up before dawn at the Dupont Circle Hotel, forked over $1,200 cash for a ninth-floor penthouse suite and kept drinking. His bender continued all day.
By the next morning, he was dead. Authorities concluded that he died of blunt force trauma, the result of repeatedly falling in his room and suffering at least one serious head wound.
Normally, such a case would be quickly forgotten. But Mikhail Lesin, 57, was no ordinary tourist on a drinking binge. He was one of Vladimir Putin’s top lieutenants during Putin’s rise to power in Russia. Speculation he was murdered has continued to this day.
Now a recent court ruling could shed light on the case.
On Feb. 13, a District of Columbia court ordered Washington’s medical examiner to turn over Lesin’s autopsy report and all related files. The order by Superior Court Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo was in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is considering an appeal, saying it should be up to the family to decide what details of Lesin’s death should be made public.
-snip-
By ASHRAF KHALIL
March 12, 2019
WASHINGTON (AP) — On a foggy November morning in 2015, a heavily intoxicated man showed up before dawn at the Dupont Circle Hotel, forked over $1,200 cash for a ninth-floor penthouse suite and kept drinking. His bender continued all day.
By the next morning, he was dead. Authorities concluded that he died of blunt force trauma, the result of repeatedly falling in his room and suffering at least one serious head wound.
Normally, such a case would be quickly forgotten. But Mikhail Lesin, 57, was no ordinary tourist on a drinking binge. He was one of Vladimir Putin’s top lieutenants during Putin’s rise to power in Russia. Speculation he was murdered has continued to this day.
Now a recent court ruling could shed light on the case.
On Feb. 13, a District of Columbia court ordered Washington’s medical examiner to turn over Lesin’s autopsy report and all related files. The order by Superior Court Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo was in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is considering an appeal, saying it should be up to the family to decide what details of Lesin’s death should be made public.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/972ebe40847a4117be313b7ee9f7bc8b