Bradford professor helped identify novichock suspects

Wednesday, 17 October 2018 16:00

A Bradford professor has revealed how he helped identify the suspects behind the Salisbury novichock poisoning case.

Hassan Ugail, Professor of Visual Computing at the University of Bradford, has developed age progression and facial recognition software that he used to contribute to one of the biggest international stories of the year.

Hassan used algorithms to compare two pictures, taken many years apart, published by the Bellingcat website identifying that Ruslan Boshirov, one of the suspects in the Salisbury novichok case, was in fact Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, a known agent of the Russian secret service, the GRU.

He ran the same tests for the other suspect Alexander Mishkin, also a member of the GRU.

Hassan’s analysis was included in a final report on the case by Bellingcat and at a briefing at the Houses of Parliament.

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