| This tale is getting twisted. John Le Carre, call your office. |
He had flown into Naples on a British Airways jet, hoping to keep his arrival on Christmas Eve a secret but local media had been tipped off about the police operation and were waiting. The arrest warrant was signed by Orlando Muntoni, an investigating magistrate in Rome, and had been issued this month. The arrest followed a raid on the offices of an organisation Scaramella runs, the Environmental Crime Protection Programme.
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At the time of the raid police took away computers, discs and bundles of document in connection with their investigation. Scaramella's arrest was in connection with the seizure of two rocket-propelled grenades found hidden inside two hollowed-out Bibles.
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They had been found inside a camper van being driven from Russia to Italy by four Ukrainians, who were held at the Italian town of Teramo. Scaramella had tipped off police claiming the information had come from Mr Litvinenko and the grenades were to be used for an assassination attempt on the Italian's life. Last month, Scaramella told a press conference that he and Mr Litvinenko were on a "hit list" drawn up by the Russian secret service. Scaramella said he was on the list along with an Italian senator, Paolo Guzzanti, because of their work on the Mitrokhin Commission - a body set up by the Italian government to investigate past and present activities in Italy of the Russian secret service.
Yesterday, Scaramella's lawyer, Sergio Rastrelli, said: "My client denies implicitly these charges. I find it surprising and Mario finds it upsetting that he has been arrested and put in custody over Christmas. "Because of the Christmas holidays he will not be questioned until 27 December, but he will be more than happy to help the Italian police with their inquiries," he said. Last night, an Italian police source said: "There was always an element of suspicion over just how he knew so much detail about the route the arms were taking."
The allegation of revealing state secrets concerns his work on the Mitrokhin Commission and the allegation of slander is against an undisclosed Russian who he accused of organising an assassination in Italy. Scaramella hit the headlines last month when it emerged that he was Mr Litvinenko's last known contact - at the Itsu sushi bar in London - before he fell ill from poisoning with radioactive polonium 210. Investigations have also revealed that the educational establishments Scaramella claims to work for have never heard of him. Italian news reports have suggested that Scaramella - who is also an honorary magistrate - works for intelligence services including the CIA and Israel's Mossad. Last night, Clemente Mastella, the Italian justice minister, said: "I believe that it is right that the fog of uncertainty surrounding this matter is cleared as quickly as possible."