A top Russian scientist has died of cancer two days after he was arrested on treason charges and accused of spying for China, his lawyer and family said Sunday.
Dmitry Kolker was plucked from a hospital in Siberia, where he was being fed through a tube, and flown to Moscow by members of the Kremlin’s FSB security service, according to his family.
Kolker, a doctor of physics and mathematics at Novosibirsk State University, was accused of espionage for China, where he previously gave scientific lectures, according to the family, which has declared him innocent.
The 54-year-old suffered from stage four pancreatic cancer, his son Maxim told Latvia-based Russian news outlet The Insider. He died on Saturday.
“The last contact I had with my father was at 18:15 on the flight to Moscow. He said he was saying goodbye,” Maxim Kolker said. “The investigator said that the conditions are good, there is a refrigerator in the prison cell. What kind of fridge? The man cannot eat, they feed him intravenously.”
“He keeps throwing up. People don’t walk around in that state.”
Kolker was accompanied by FSB agents on all of his trips to China, his son said. Officials would ensure that Kolker spoke to the Chinese students only in Russian through an interpreter.
Dmitry Kolker was plucked from a hospital in Siberia, where he was being fed through a tube, and taken to Moscow by members of the Kremlin’s FSB security service.Maxim Kolker/east2west news A number of Russian scientists have been arrested and charged with treason in recent years for allegedly transfer of sensitive material to foreigners. Alina Mironova/east2west news Days after Kolker’s arrest, authorities also arrested Anatoly Maslov, chief scientist at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Novosibirsk. Alina Mironova/east2west news
Kolker’s daughter Alina Mironova condemned his arrest in a post on her VKontakte page.
“Stage four pancreatic cancer is a sentence,” she wrote. “But to face such a sentence not at home but in the walls of a detention center without proper medical care is the worst thing that can happen to a person.”
A number of Russian scientists have been arrested and charged with treason in recent years for allegedly passing sensitive material to foreigners.
A top Russian scientist has died of cancer two days after being arrested on treason charges and accused of spying for China. Alina Mironova/east2west news The 54-year-old suffers from pancreatic cancer in the fourth stage. Alina Mironova/east2west news
Days after Kolker’s arrest, authorities also arrested Anatoly Maslov, chief scientist at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Novosibirsk.
On Saturday, the state news agency TASS reported that Russia had detained a second scientist in Novosibirsk on suspicion of treason. It was not clear whether the two cases were related.
Kremlin critics say the arrests often stem from unfounded paranoia.
With pole cables
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