Third man charged over fires at properties linked to UK Prime Minister Starmer

LONDON (AP) — A third suspect has been charged with arson over a series of fires targeting property linked to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, police said Wednesday.

Petro Pochynok, 34, has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life. The Ukrainian national appeared at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning, speaking only to confirm his name and London address.

Two other men also have been charged with setting fire to Starmer’s personal home, along with a property where he once lived and a car he had sold. They are Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Ukraine-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26.

Lavrynovych and Carpiuc appeared in court earlier. All three suspcts have been ordered detained until a joint hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court on June 6.

No injuries were reported from the fires in north London, which occurred on three nights between May 8 and May 12.

Starmer and his family had moved out of his home after he was elected in July, and they live at the prime minister’s official Downing Street residence.

A Toyota RAV4 that Starmer once owned was set ablaze on May 8, just down the street from the house where he lived before he became prime minister. The door of an apartment building where he once lived was set on fire on May 11, and on May 12 the doorway of his home was charred after being set ablaze.

Counterterrorism detectives led the investigation because it involves the prime minister. The charges were authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Division, which is responsible for prosecuting offenses relating to state threats, among other crimes.

Starmer called the fires “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for.”