Russian scientist held in Ice jail charged with smuggling frog embryos into US | US immigration
Harvard world that has been detained United States migration The detention was charged for several months on Wednesday by smuggling the frog embryos to the United States, and it is likely to face the deportation.
Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist and a researcher working at Harvard University, I was originally detained by immigration officials In February after trying to enter the United States at Boston Logan International Airport.
On May 14 press releaseThe office of the American prosecutor in Massachusetts said that smuggling charges could reach a penalty of up to 20 years and fines of up to $ 250,000. Press bulletins claim that Petrova’s text messages show that they are aware of the requirements for advertising fetuses before entering the United States. Petrova has spent the past three months in the Louisiana detention facility.
Petrova’s lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, described the case as “in vain” and asked about the timing of her transfer to the criminal custody, saying that this happened after the judge had set a lawsuit in May 28 a sponsorship session to consider its launch.
“The charge, which was presented three months after the alleged customs violation, is clearly aimed at making Kseniia look a criminal to justify their efforts to deport it,” he said in a statement.
Petrova detailed its research experience and detention in a New York Times this week. Petrova said that she left Russia after her arrest because of her protest against the Ukraine war, and found a “Heaven for Science” at Harvard University College in 2023. Petrova, which Post Facebook posts Vladimir Putin, supporting the isolation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is afraid to deport to Russia because of its political positions.
Petrova research focuses on aging and chemical makeup of cells, which it says can “pave the way for a healthier life and treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.”
Petrova wrote that without helping her, her colleagues at Harvard University “stop”.
The supervisor of Petrova in Harvard, Lyon Bishkin, praised my research, Saying at that time she was caught in public It was “amazing: I have ever seen in 20 years at Harvard University.”
Petrova is among the many non -citizen academics who have been arrested or threatened with deportation Trump administration. Its case also stands out because it is, Unlike many othersHe did not publicly protest against the killing of Israel for civilians in Gaza.
Petrova Prova also detailed their detained colleagues who met in Louisiana – a fiancée for an American citizen pending an appointment in the October Court, and a woman refused political asylum and deported her from her daughter, who has a legal status. She finishes talking about her work in the laboratory.
“I hope the judge will judge [on] Wednesday can be released, so I can return to my laboratory. There is a set of data that you finished in the middle of the road. “I want to go home and end it,” Petrova said.
Reuters contributed to the reports
