A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova on smuggling charges, highlighting tensions around immigration and the treatment of noncitizen academics.
Harvard Researcher Indicted on Smuggling Charges
Harvard Researcher Indicted on Smuggling Charges
The indictment of Kseniia Petrova raises concerns for international academics amidst claims of draconian government actions.
A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed at Harvard Medical School, on multiple charges including smuggling goods into the United States and providing false information to customs officials. The 31-year-old researcher was detained earlier this year when she returned from a trip to France carrying frog embryo samples, which she had brought back at her supervisor's request.
Ms. Petrova's situation has garnered significant attention from the scientific community and civil rights advocates, who criticize the severe legal actions taken against her as excessively harsh and indicative of a troubling trend for noncitizen academics. The indictment outlines three felony charges, the most serious being smuggling, which carries a potential sentence of 20 years in prison or a $250,000 fine. The other two charges, related to concealment of material facts and false statements, each carry penalties of up to five years.
While Ms. Petrova admitted to not declaring the embryos, her defense argues that such an oversight would typically warrant a minor penalty instead of the aggressive legal actions she has faced. Following the incident, her visa was revoked, leading to her detention in a facility in Louisiana. In a recent court session, Judge Christina Reiss expressed doubts about the basis for the immigration officer's decision to revoke Petrova's visa, stating there appeared to be no solid legal ground for the action.
