By Michael Holden
LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian man was found guilty on Monday of carrying out arson attacks on property connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May last year on behalf of a mystery figure he knew only as "EL Money".
Over five days last May, police were called to fires at a house in north London connected to Starmer, another at a property nearby where he previously lived and where his sister-in-law still resided, and to a blaze involving a Toyota car that also used to belong to the British leader.
Roman Lavrynovych, 22, was found guilty at London's Old Bailey Court of two counts of committing arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
Lavrynovych and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, who was born in Ukraine, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson. Fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted of the same charge while Lavrynovych was found not guilty of committing arson with intent to risk life.
They will be sentenced on Friday.
NO EVIDENCE OF RUSSIAN STATE-BACKED THREAT AT THE MOMENT
The jury was told Lavrynovych had been offered payment to carry out arson by an account on Telegram, which used the name "EL Money".
EL Money contacted him in both Russian and Ukrainian. Prosecutors did not state who or what entity was believed to be behind the account.
"It is no part of your considerations to decide who 'EL Money' is and what reason he might have had to coordinate the actions of these defendants against these properties and this car associated with the prime minister," prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said at the start of the trial.
He said Carpiuc's role involved planning and receiving payment.
Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, said ahead of the verdict that there was no evidence Moscow was behind the attacks.
"Obviously, it was a Russian-speaking entity that created those taskings, but we have seen no evidence to link this back to any Russian-backed tasking," she said. "At the moment, we've got no evidence to suggest that this was a state-backed threat and target on the prime minister."
During his defence, Lavrynovych told the court he thought EL Money was more than one person, and that a woman was one of those using the account.
"I didn't know where he contacted me from," he said of EL Money. Lavrynovych also denied knowing who Starmer was, saying he took the job because he needed money to help his father who was suffering from health issues.
The court was shown messages in which EL Money told Lavrynovych he needed to flee Britain after carrying out the arson attacks.
"Look you attacked the home of a very high-ranking individual in Britain, I will send you money, you need to leave the city," one message read.
If detained by police, Lavrynovych was to send a message with the code word "geranium", and EL Money would send a lawyer to help him, another message showed.
Asked by his lawyer during the trial if he had used the code word, he replied: "No, I didn't try to. I had no time for that."
'DELIBERATE AND DANGEROUS ACTS' WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
The court was told that the car had once belonged to Starmer, one house was managed by a company of which the prime minister had once been a director and shareholder, and the other home was still owned by him.
"These were deliberate and dangerous acts of arson, carried out against properties and a vehicle linked to the prime minister, and they posed a serious risk to life," said Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division.
"Such offences go beyond damage to property – they are intended to intimidate and undermine public confidence, and that will not be tolerated," he said following the announcement of the verdict.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Sarah Young and Joe Bavier)
