2 publishers · first seen Wed, 04 Nov 2026 08:22 UTC · updated Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:29 UTC
Federal prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against Kseniia Petrova, a Russian researcher at Harvard Medical School, who was detained for four months after being arrested at a Boston airport for bringing frog embryos into the country for cancer research. The decision to dismiss the charges came after a federal judge ruled that a customs officer improperly canceled Petrova's visa. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley cited the resource costs of continuing the prosecution as outweighing the public interest in its resolution. Petrova, who maintained her innocence and claimed she did not know she had to declare the samples, faced charges of smuggling, concealing facts, and making false statements to federal officials. Her defense team argued the prosecution was vindictive and selective, noting that such criminal prosecutions are rare for this type of case.
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