Dmitri Kolker, 54, a Russian laser scientist, doctor of physics and mathematics died two days after being arrested by agents of the security services (FSB), on charges of espionage, his family announced on Sunday July 3.
Mr. Kolker died on Saturday at dawn in a Moscow hospital where he had been transferred from a prison in the capital, his family said. published on social networks the message of the authorities. Alina Mironova, her daughter, wrote on the network social VKontakte :
Dad passed away tonight. According to the telegram, he was admitted to hospital on July 22, where he died at 2:40 a.m. The hospital’s intensive care unit confirmed this information. This is a great tragedy for our family.
1er July, a court in Novosibirsk, a large city in Siberia, announced that Dmitri Kolker had been arrested and remanded in custody for two months. He was charged with a crime under article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (” high treason “), writes the Tass agencya crime punishable by 20 years in prison.
Задержанный накануне ФСБ новосибирский физие Дмитрий Колкер скончался в СИЗ3ASCO/
Учёный-физик из Новосибирска Дмитрий Колкер умер. 30 июня его арестовали и посадили в СИЗО по обвинению в госизмене… https://t.co/s121I2Ud5J
His family says he was arrested by FSB agents at a clinic in Novosibirsk where he was being treated for terminal pancreatic cancer, then transferred to Moscow, despite his state of health. “The FSB killed my father, they knew what he was in, but they took him out of the hospital. Thank you my country!!! His family weren’t even allowed to say goodbye to him.”wrote on Sunday Maxim Kolker on VKontakte.
Accused of working for China
Dmitri Kolker ran a laboratory on “quantum and optical technologies”, according to the Novosibirsk State University website. According to his son, he was suspected of espionage after giving lessons at an international conference in China.
During this conference, still according to his son, Dmitri Kolker was permanently accompanied by an FSB agent to avoid any dissemination of sensitive information. In Russia, scientists are regularly accused of espionage and convicted in sometimes very controversial cases.
The Tass agency reported on Saturday that another researcher, Anatoly Maslovhad been arrested in Novosibirsk and detained in Moscow for ” high treason “suspected of having delivered classified information on hypersonic technology.