A federal judge ordered the release of Kseniia Petrova, the Russian-born Harvard scientist who another federal judge previously said was unjustly detained by customs officials.
At a June 12 hearing in Boston, Magistrate Judge Judith Dein ordered the 30-year-old researcher’s pre-trial release. Petrova spoke briefly outside of the Massachusetts courthouse with lawyers.
"It means that the legal process, even though it may be slow, is working," Gregory Romanovsky, her lawyer, told reporters.
Petrova has been held in detention since February, after she brought non-living lab samples from Paris. A customs official at Boston’s Logan International Airport detained Petrova on Feb. 16 and subsequently revoked her J-1 visa.
She was placed in immigration detention in Louisiana before federal prosecutors charged her with felony smuggling for attempting to bring frog embryo samples into the country. She was then placed in U.S. Marshals Service custody.
