15 May 2025

DOJ Reveals It Filed Criminal Charges Against Kseniia Petrova

by Bonnie | | 0

Shortly after a hearing in front of federal District Court Judge Christina Reiss at which Reiss scheduled a bail hearing, the DOJ unsealed criminal charges for smuggling that it filed two days earlier against Russian-born researcher Kseniia Petrova.

Prosecutors allege that she “fraudulently and knowingly” imported biological specimens by not listing on her customs declaration form the non-living, chemically fixed frog embryos she was bringing back from France on behalf of her principal researcher. Customs and Border Protection searched her luggage and questioned her. She was cooperative, but instead of the usual confiscation and a fine, and instead of letting her return to France, CBP revoked her visa and decided to deport her to Russia, where she would be persecuted for protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Her lawyer Gregory Romanovsky said, “The timing of Kseniia’s transfer out of ICE custody into criminal custody is especially suspect because it happened right after the judge set a bail hearing for her release. The charge, filed three months after the alleged customs violation, is clearly intended to make Kseniia look like a criminal to justify their efforts to deport her.”

It may also be an end run around DOJ’s failure to fully convince Reiss to let them make Petrova refile a habeas corpus petition in Louisiana, where courts are more amenable to whatever the government wants, instead of Vermont. The Supreme Court recently ruled that legal challenges to immigration detention should be done by filing a writ of habeas corpus in the jurisdiction where the person is being held at the time of filing. Petrova was detained in Vermont for about a week before being moved to Louisiana. By moving Petrova into the criminal justice system, DOJ may be able to escape from Reiss’ scrutiny.

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