UK scientists to examine Tsar's remains

First Edition

THE REMAINS of Tsar Nicholas II and members of his family will be sent to Britain on Monday for further forensic research under an agreement between Russian and British authorities, it was reported yesterday in a Moscow newspaper.

The Moscow Tribune, an English-language newspaper that published its first edition yesterday, said the remains would be sent to the government forensic laboratory at Aldermaston, in Buckinghamshire.

A US forensic scientist, Dr William Maples, confirmed that the remains were those of Nicholas, his German wife Alexandra, the family doctor Sergei Botkin, and the Tsar's three eldest children, Olga, Maria and Tatiana.

But the article said the Russian government was seeking the co- operation of the British Home Office in studying the remains before an official announcement of positive identification would be made.

The bones were discovered in July 1991 near the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Ural mountains.

Scientists at the Aldermaston laboratory are leaders in the field of genetic testing, the report said.