Kseniia Petrova, a Harvard scientist, born in Russia, has been accused of smuggling biological material in the United States, an escalation in a case that has already raised legal questions and civil rights about her arrest.
Federal prosecutors claim that Petrova, 30, violated the United States Customs Law by not declaring frog embryos preserved in their luggage when he arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on February 16 from Paris. Now he faces a position of smuggling of goods in the United States.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Seal this week and was made public on Wednesday, a CBP canine alerted the officers of the Petrova Canvas Stock Exchange, which was later recorded. The officers found embryos of claw frog, paraffin slide and other samples.
When asked for the first time, Petrova “denied having taken any biological material,” says the affidavit. After they showed you a message from your phone advising you that “be sure to get permission, etc., like that link, I sent to the Leon/Group chat about frog embryos because TSA checked my bags in Customs in Boston,” he acknowledged the samples. When asked if he knew they had to be declared, he replied that “he was not sure.”
Petrova described the incident differently.
“They asked me if I had biological samples in my luggage. I said yes,” he told NBC News in Louisiana. She described the confusion about customs procedures and a long interrogation by customs officers and border protection.
“No one knew what was happening to me. I had no contact, not my lawyer, not Leon, not anyone,” he said, referring to Dr. Leon Peshkin, a main investigation scientist from the Harvard Systems Biology Department and his manager and mentor. “And the next day, they didn’t say what would happen. I was waiting in a cell.”
The document indicates that Petrova told Customs officers and the border patrol that he had protested against the Russian Federation and expressed his fear of returning. He asked to go to France, where he celebrated a valid Schengen visa, but instead she was later taken to ice custody, where she remains detained in the Richwood correctional center in Monroe, Louisiana.
During a habit hearing on Tuesday at the Federal Court of Vermont, the United States District Judge, Christina Reiss, questioned the legality of government actions. “Where does a customs officer and border patrol have the authority on your own to revoke a visa?” She asked. “I see nothing about a customs violation.”
Petrova’s lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, argued that the government acted beyond its authority. “There is no corresponding foundation of inadmissibility,” he said. “It cannot be found inadmissible due to the violation of customs.”
“I was willing to go to Paris, but the government did not leave it,” Romanovsky added.
Reiss scheduled a tentative bond hearing for May 28 and requested more information on whether the court has jurisdiction to free Petrova.
