A federal judge said on Wednesday that she would give a deposit Kseniia Petrova, Russian scientist Employed by the University of Harvard, in an immigration case from the failure of Ms. Petrova to declare scientific samples which she transported to the country.
“There does not seem to be a factual or legal basis for the actions of the immigration agent” to eliminate Ms. Petrova from her visa on February 16, Christina Reiss, chief judge of the American district court of Vermont, during a court hearing.
She added that “the life and well-being of Mrs. Petrova are in danger if she is expelled to Russia”, as the government has intended to do so.
By traveling to France on vacation, Ms. Petrova agreed to take samples of frog embryos from an affiliation laboratory at the request of her supervisor at the Harvard Medical School.
When the samples were discovered during an inspection of Ms. Petrova’s luggage at Logan airport in Boston, the customs manager canceled his visa on site and started the deportation procedure. She was transferred to a detention center for immigration and customs in Louisiana, where she stayed for more than three months.
At the end of the hearing on Wednesday, judge Reiss said that “what happened in this case was extraordinary and new”, and that if it did not take measures in the case “there will be no determination” that the rights of Ms. Petrova had been raped.
