Mercury poisoning or random illness?

Yesterday, the world press reported that the lawyer for Anna Politkovskaya's family had been "poisoned."   This article in the Herald Tribune says that balls of mercury were discovered in her car in Strassbourg, where the lawyer, Karinna Moskalenko, represents Russian citizens in cases against the Russian government at the European Court of Human Rights.  Ms. Moskalenko's family became ill recently, with one daughter registering a fever of 104 degrees, although French police have said that the quantity of mercury found in the car was not sufficient to cause illness (but more mercury could have been present when the illnesses occurred).  

It's unclear as to whether the mercury in the car is a coincidence or if it was deliberately planted as a warning.  We shall see what further investigation reveals...