An American federal judge on Wednesday ordered the conditional release of a Russian scientist at Harvard University who fled abroad for fear of political persecution and that the Trump administration wants to return to his country.
Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at the Harvard School of Medicine, had been arrested by the Customs and Immigration Police (ICE) arrested in February at Boston airport when she returned from a trip to Paris, for having omitted to declare organic samples that she was taking in her luggage.
“It is not a danger to the community”
He was told that his visa was revoked and would be expelled to Russia. He was then transferred to a detention center administered by ICE in Louisiana (South).
Subsequently, the criminal prosecution was dedicated to Kseniia Petrova on May 14 for smuggling, subject to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and 250,000 fines.
A federal vermont judge (Northeast), Christina Reiss, ordered ICE on Wednesday to release her before a future decision on the merits of her visa.
“We have demonstrated at the audience that Kseniia is not a danger to the community and has no risk of flight and has nothing to do in a center for retention of immigration services,” his lawyer, Greg Romanovsky reacted, in a statement.
The researcher must be returned to Boston
The lawyer said he was satisfied with being able to present the audience on Wednesday “two evidence that Kseniia Petrova did not carry anything dangerous or illicit and that Customs officers from the International Airport (from Boston) Logan were not legally authorized to revoke her visa or stop her.”
Therefore, the Russian researcher must be returned to Boston while waiting for a new audience about his care, this time due to smuggling.
She has argued since her arrest that she was afraid to be arrested if she returned to Russia for participating in political demonstrations, especially against the invasion of Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
