Russia was tracking killers of Alexander Litvinenko but UK warned it off'

[David Guyatt]

Why is it in the "public interest" to keep this secret, and why would revealing these documents "damage the national interest" to the "highest degree"?

Do I smell US or other close Allies involvement here - or am I imagining things?

Alexander Litvinenko: William Hague wins secrecy fight over inquest





High Court judges counter coroner's call to reveal details of protected documents

JOHN ASTON

Wednesday 27 November 2013

The Government has won a High Court order to prevent the partial lifting of a secrecy order affecting the proposed inquest into the death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Foreign Secretary William Hague succeeded in overturning coroner Sir Robert Owen's decision to reveal documents currently kept confidential by a public interest immunity (PII) certificate.
The coroner argued that disclosure was necessary for a "fair and meaningful" inquest.
Government lawyers contended the documents are "sensitive to the highest degree" and public disclosure would damage the national interest.
Today Lord Justice Goldring, sitting with two other judges, quashed Sir Robert's decision, saying: "I am driven to the conclusion that the weight the coroner gave to the views of the Secretary of State was insufficient and amounted to an error of law."
Mr Litvinenko, 43, a Russian dissident and former KGB agent, was poisoned in 2006 by radioactive polonium-210 while drinking tea during a meeting with former security colleagues at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London. He died three weeks later.