By Michael Holden
LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Three men with links to Ukraine carried out a series of arson attacks on property connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on behalf of a mystery figure known as "El Money", prosecutors told a London court on Wednesday.
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 used to live, and to a blaze involving a Toyota car that also used to belong to the British leader.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said police had identified Roman Lavrynovych, 22, as being the man behind all the fires and that he had been offered money to do so by someone using the name "El Money".
"It is no part of your considerations to decide who 'El Money' is and what reason he might have had to co-ordinate the actions of these defendants against these properties and this car associated with the prime minister," Atkinson told the jury at London's Old Bailey court.
Ukrainian Lavrynovych is charged with arson with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.
He and the other two defendants, fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 35, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, who was born in Ukraine, are also accused of conspiracy to commit arson. They deny the accusations.
BEYOND COINCIDENCE
Atkinson said Pochynok had been recruited by Carpiuc to help Lavrynovych with the first fire, while Carpiuc’s role involved planning and receiving payment.
"Police recovered contact on the Telegram messaging app between Lavrynovych and ‘El Money’, which showed that Lavrynovych had been recruited, instructed and promised with payment for the fires that he was told to start," Atkinson said.
"Police also recovered contact on the Telegram messaging app between Carpiuc and ‘El Money’. ‘El Money’ communicated in Russian, in contrast to the Ukrainian otherwise used by the defendants."
He said three fires in the same area in five days would be unusual, but all involving property linked to one person was beyond coincidence.
Atkinson said the car had once belonged to Starmer, one house was managed by a company of which the prime minister had once been director and shareholder, and the other home was still owned by him and his sister-in-law was living there.
"It does not matter whether they knew that the property they were targeting was connected to the prime minister or whether that formed part of their motivation," Atkinson said.
The trial continues.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Sarah Young and Alex Richardson)
