Scientist from St. Petersburg is accused of treason

Currently, the academician is under house arrest, RIA Novosti reports , referring to the lawyer Ivan Pavlov Mitko.

According to the prosecution, the 7-year-old scientist handed over classified materials to the Chinese special services.

- We recently entered this matter, now we are getting acquainted with the materials and circumstances. The scientist himself and his wife have a non-disclosure agreement, - said the lawyer.

According to the scientist himself, he only lectured at one of the Chinese universities. He categorically denies his guilt.

The academician faces up to 20 years in prison.

Medusa reports that Mitko was taken away for questioning immediately after being charged with treason. Equipment, documents, even the receipts on the exchange of foreign currency for the trips were confiscated from his home.

“They carried things out in boxes”, the publication quotes the words of the wife of the scientist Tatyana Mitko.

She was also questioned. According to Mitko’s wife, most of the questions concerned family relations. After that, a non-disclosure subscription was taken from her.

The head of the human rights organization Team 29, Ivan Pavlov, noted that Mitko was charged in February, was searched, and later the Dzerzhinsky District Court chose a preventive measure in the form of house arrest.

- Since then, a preliminary investigation has been ongoing. He is accused of transferring some secret information to the Chinese secret services that he found in his baggage when he traveled to China. And that was in 2018, - said the lawyer in an interview with Sputnik radio.

The lawyer said that Mitko is not allowed to walk, he is forbidden to communicate with the press.

"We are trying to challenge the arrest, a corresponding complaint has been filed, soon the Leningrad Regional Court will consider the issue of the measure of restraint. We only defended in June, relatives invited us, we met Valery Bronislavovich”, - Pavlov noted.

He also said that almost all such cases are initiated for far-fetched reasons, and now there is an obvious trend in the attack on science.

"We believe that society has the right to know what kind of outrages are happening in the field of prosecution of citizens in the field of state security. Almost all cases of this kind, in which I participated as a defender, are initiated on far-fetched grounds. We believe that the reason for this is the desire of some officials in the FSB to get career advantages. The risk group includes scientists, journalists, and human rights defenders. Now there is an obvious trend in the attack on science", - said Pavlov.

Valery Mitko is a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Engineering Academy, an academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.