A federal judge ordered the release of Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention on Wednesday, who was detained at Boston’s Logan Airport three months ago for failing to declare frog embryos.
District of Vermont Chief Judge Christina Reiss told the court that she finds Petrova was not a flight risk or a “danger to the community.”
Petrova, 31, was detained in February when she was reentering the country after a vacation in France. The frog embryos had been requested by the leader of her research group at Harvard Medical School’s Kirschner Lab.
The judge said that, based off of the expert testimony she heard, “evidence supports a conclusion that the samples she brought into the United States are wholly non-hazardous, non-toxic, nonliv