Russian scientist Kseniia Petrova, who is already facing deportation, accused of smuggling the frog embryos in us

Boston A Russian -born Russian scientist at Harvard University, who was already facing deportation to Russia on Wednesday by trying to smuggle frog embryos into the country. Kseniia Petrova, 30, was sent to an American immigration and customs enforcement facility in Louisiana after her arrest in February. She is still waiting for the judge’s decision regarding Whether it will be deported to RussiaShe fears her imprisonment or worse. A session was held on Wednesday in Fairmont.

But in the last development in the case, the Federal Public Prosecutors accused her of smuggling goods into the United States. She says she was detained on Wednesday. If convicted, Petrova faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000.

Petrova lawyer cannot be accessed for comment. It is not clear whether it is transferred from the ice facility.

Petrova was spending a holiday in France, where she stopped in a laboratory specializing in linking Superfine sections of frog embryos and got a set of samples for use in the research.

As it passed through a customs checkpoint and border protection at Boston Logan International Airport, Petrova was interrogated from the samples. Petrova told the Associated Press in an interview last month that she did not realize that the elements needed to announce them and did not try to infiltrate anything. After interrogation, she told Petrova that her visa had been canceled.

“The truth is my side,” said Petrova, who spoke with AP in a video call from the Louisiana ice detention center in Monroe.

The Ministry of Internal Security said in statement On the social platform X in which Petrova was held after “lying to federal officers about carrying materials to the country.” They claim the messages on her phone.

Federal prosecutors said that Petrova was suspended by customs agents and border protection after law enforcement dogs alerted them to a portfolio of fraud. Upon inspection, frog embryos were discovered in a foam box. Prosecutors said that she initially denied carrying any biological substance in her examination, but later confessed to that.

A coach and teacher Petrova, Lyon Bishkin, said in an interview with him last month that the samples were not dangerous or vital.

“I don’t think she did anything wrong,” Bishkin told AP. “But even if she did, at most, she should have a warning or perhaps a fine of up to $ 500.”

Harvard said in a statement that the university “continues to monitor the situation.”

Petrova AP told her that she had left her country to avoid a potential political conflict or repression. She escaped yet Russia invaded Ukraine In February 2022, on the occasion of the beginning of a three -year bloody war.

“If I go back, I am afraid that he will be imprisoned because of my political position and my position against the war,” Petrova said.

The Petrova case is closely monitored by the scientific community, with some fear that it may affect employment and retain foreign scientists in American universities.

“I think there is a wrong perception that foreign scientists have somehow to be in the United States. I feel the opposite,” Bishkin said. “Foreign scientists come here with gifts … They are experts with high skills in demand. They enrich the American scientific community.”