The body of the exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky has been removed from his Berkshire mansion before a postmortem to be carried out by a Home Office pathologist.
Results of the examination to be carried out at 1pm on Monday to determine the cause of the 67-year-old's death on Friday night or Saturday are expected to be announced by Thames Valley police late on Monday afternoon or in the early evening, a police spokesman said.
Berezovsky was found dead in a locked bathroom at his home by a bodyguard on Saturday afternoon after he had not surfaced since the night before. Family and friends who arrived at the house have told the press there was no sign of blood, he was fully clothed and there was a scarf lying beside his body. He had been suffering from depression for several months after a shattering high court defeat last year to his former business partner, Roman Abramovich, and amid mounting debts.
Detectives have said there is no evidence of any third-party involvement in his death. A paramedic's radiation monitoring device went off when leaving the property on Saturday, causing the property to be sealed off for checks by specialist police officers trained in handling chemical, biological and radioactive material. The property was given the all-clear on Sunday morning and scene-of-crime officers are continuing investigations at the house on Monday.
Berezovsky's former wife Galina, who owns the house and had allowed him to live there, arrived while a paramedic was on the scene and saw the scarf. Nikolai Glushkov, one of Berezovsky's oldest friends, spoke to her afterwards and told the Guardian: "Boris was strangled. Either he did it himself or with the help of someone. [But] I don't believe it was suicide. This was not just a normal death."
Yuli Dubov, a writer and one of Berezovsky's closest friends, told the Daily Telegraph: "Boris's personal bodyguard noticed Boris's mobile telephone lying somewhere in the Ascot house on Saturday afternoon shortly after 3pm with several missed calls on it going back to 11.30am that morning. It was very unusual for Boris to miss calls like that. He realised something was wrong and rushed to check the bathroom but found the door locked and when nobody answered his knock he broke it down. He found Boris lying on the floor dead, in his clothes. The bodyguard touched him and felt he was cold. He checked for signs of blood and found none before rushing to call the emergency services."
The bodyguard is understood to have been the only other person in the house at the time. Berezovsky did not leave a suicide note, according to an unnamed source reported in the New York Times. He had reportedly suffered from heart problems.
Thames Valley police have said his death remains "unexplained" and said on Sunday that officers were now "building a picture of the last days of Mr Berezovsky's life, speaking to close friends and family to gain a better understanding of his state of mind".
DCI Kevin Brown, of Thames Valley police, said: "It would be wrong to speculate on the cause of death until the postmortem has been carried out. We do not have any evidence at this stage to suggest third-party involvement." He added: "We are at the early stages of the investigation and we are retaining an open mind as we progress."
One of the last people to see Berezovsky was Ilya Zhegulyov, a Russian journalist from Forbes magazine, who interviewed him at the Four Seasons hotel in Park Lane, central London, on the day before his death and reported he looked "very depressed and very lost".
Berezovsky's prominence as a critic of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and his repeatedly expressed fear of assassination attempts fuelled speculation that he may have been targeted.
His was the third suspicious death in the past five years to befall a businessman from the former USSR in the affluent crescent of suburbia just beyond the M25 in Surrey and Berkshire. Less than 10 miles from the scene of Berezovsky's death, the Russian supergrass Alexander Perepilichnyy died while jogging last year – his death remains unexplained – while 15 miles away, at Downside Manor near Leatherhead, Berezovsky's former business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili died suddenly in 2008, sparking fevered speculation. A pathologist concluded he died of heart disease.
Two weeks ago Berezovsky met his lawyers in London to prepare for his testimony at the inquest into the death in London by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. An associate at the meeting described him as seeming "quite low" and "not as ebullient and chipper as usual".
Lord Bell, a PR adviser and friend who saw him for lunch in London two weeks ago and spoke to him again by phone more recently, said Berezovsky was "very depressed and very low" after the judge in his case against the Chelsea football club owner ruled he was "dishonest" and "deluded".
"He was very shocked by the decision in the Abramovich case," added Andrew Stephenson, a lawyer who has represented him for the past 20 years. "To have an English judge say 'I don't believe you' really destroyed his confidence and the platform he had [to campaign against Putin]."
Bell said he did not think it likely Berezovsky would kill himself and said his friend's heart problems would be the most likely cause. "I don't think there's foul play," he said. "I can't see any reason why they [Moscow] would bother. They had managed to destroy him and they would have preferred to see him in misery and they will be rather upset he has escaped it."
