New Zealand to Investigate Decade-Old Poisoning Claim

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The police in New Zealand said Thursday that they were looking into a claim that a man who said he once worked for Russian intelligence was poisoned in Auckland more than a decade ago.

The man, Boris Karpichkov, who said he worked for the KGB before becoming a double agent and later claiming asylum in Britain, spent 15 months in New Zealand in 2006 and 2007.

Karpichkov told the British television show “Good Morning Britain” this week that he had powder thrown in his face by someone “dressed as a common beggar” on a busy street in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. He said he became ill, losing his hair and more than 65 pounds.

His doctor initially told him he had the flu, Karpichkov said, and he did not report the episode to the police at the time.

A spokesman for the New Zealand Police confirmed that the department had been aware of Karpichkov’s presence in the country between June 2006 and October 2007. The police said they were examining their files for other information about Karpichkov.

The police review would take some time, the spokesman said, “given the historic nature of this matter.”

Karpichkov, who is now based in Britain, also told the morning show that he had received a telephone warning from a Russian intelligence officer on Feb. 12 that “something bad would happen” to him and several other named individuals. He said the names included Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian military intelligence officer who was poisoned along with his daughter in Salisbury, England, on March 4.

Karpichkov said it was the first he had heard of Skripal.