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 mystery figure "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 the man blamed for starting the fires, Roman Lavrynovych, had been offered money to do so by someone called "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.
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.
"The RAV4 car had once belonged to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer," he said. "The house in Ellington Street was managed by a company of which the prime minister had once been director and shareholder. The house in Countess Road still belonged to the prime minister, and was occupied by his sister-in-law."
Ukrainian Lavrynovych, 22, is charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.
He and the other two, 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 charges.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Sarah Young)
