Russian Colleague Doubts Kelly Committed Suicide [View All]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/08/13/013.html

A Russian colleague of David Kelly, the British microbiologist who died amid a dispute about whether British authorities falsified intelligence reports on Iraq's weapons programs, said Tuesday that he doubted Kelly committed suicide.

Kelly, a former UN weapons inspector, was found with his wrist slashed last month, just days after being harshly questioned by a parliamentary committee about his disclosure to the BBC that the British government had "sexed up" intelligence reports on Saddam Hussein's arsenal.

British police have said they are not looking for any suspects -- indicating they believe the death was a suicide. But Professor Sergei Rybakov, who served as a UN weapons expert and Kelly's immediate subordinate in Iraq in 1996 and 1998, said the microbiologist was an unlikely person to have killed himself. "Judging by his character ... I was very surprised to hear it was suicide," Rybakov said from the city of Vladimir, where he heads a rare disease laboratory at the Research Institute for Animal Protection. "And what really happened there, the investigation will show."

Rybakov recalled that Kelly was optimistic and even-tempered, never losing his cool even in the pressure of working on a team that could not always communicate well in the same language.

"Whatever happened, David always remained an equanimous and friendly person. In my view, such as person is not capable of committing suicide," Rybakov told Izvestia. "I can't imagine what could have happened to him during the past five years, during which time I haven't seen him. But it's unlikely that a person can change so much that he would solve his problems by suicide."