A Russian scientist who was arrested in Siberia last week on suspicion of state treason and flown to Moscow despite suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer has died, lawyers and a relative said on Sunday.
Physicist Dmitry Kolker, 54, was taken from his hospital bed, where he was being fed through a tube, and put on a more than four-hour flight to Moscow, where lawyers said he was taken to prison. from Lefortovo and later died in a nearby hospital.
His cousin Anton Dianov told Reuters from the United States that the accusation against the laser specialist, who had betrayed state secrets to China, was absurd.
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“He was a scientist, he loved his country, he worked in his country despite many invitations from leading universities and laboratories to go work abroad. He wanted to work in Russia, he wanted to teach students there,” he said.
“These charges are absolutely ridiculous and extremely cruel and unusual for such a sick man. They knew that he was on his deathbed and they chose to arrest him.”
Family and lawyers said Kolker was detained and his house searched by the FSB security service. They said the treason charges, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years, were based on lectures Kolker had given in China, even though the content had been approved by the FSB.
Reuters did not receive a response to an email request for comment from the FSB.
Lawyer Alexander Fedulov told Reuters he tried to contact the authorities on Kolker’s behalf, but was turned down by the FSB investigation department and the prison.
He said he would file a legal complaint Monday about the circumstances of Kolker’s arrest.
On Saturday, the state news agency TASS said Russia had detained a second scientist in Novosibirsk on suspicion of state treason. It was not clear if the two cases were connected.
Several Russian scientists have been arrested and charged with treason in recent years for allegedly passing sensitive material to foreigners. Kremlin critics say the arrests are often due to unfounded paranoia.
Dianov, the cousin, said that Kolker was also a very accomplished concert pianist and organist who performed both in Russia and Europe.
“For me, someone who was producing such beautiful things could not have done what they accuse him of. And that’s how I’m going to remember him forever,” she said, fighting back tears. “That’s what Dima is to me and the rest of the family.”
(Reuters Reporting Edited by Alexandra Hudson)