"Putin sees spies everywhere": Secret service apparently arrests seriously ill researcher - death message follows
Created: 04/07/2022, 14:34
By: Linus Prien
Vladimir Putin © IMAGO/Mikhail Metzel
The FSB apparently arrested a Russian scientist and brought him to Moscow from his sick bed on charges of espionage.
The man is probably dead now.
Moscow - Amid the escalating war in Ukraine, a renowned Russian scientist was arrested in a hospital bed on charges of espionage and died two days later.
Dmitri Kolker was seriously ill with cancer and died on Saturday in a hospital in Moscow, his family said on Sunday (July 3).
He was previously in a Moscow prison, according to a statement from the authorities published by Kolker's son Maxim on the online platform VKontakte.
Death after arrest: Scientist arrested with cancer
Two days earlier, a court in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk announced that Kolker had been arrested and held in custody for two months.
Accordingly, he was accused of "treason" and "espionage for the benefit of a foreign state", for which 20 years imprisonment is threatened.
As reported by the
Daily Mail
, the FSB had also accused Kolker of previously running a ring of pro-Chinese spies.
Another allegedly involved professor, Anatoly Maslow, is therefore in a prison in Moscow.
According to the report, a confidante of the late scientist assessed the situation as follows: "Putin sees spies everywhere".
According to the family, FSB agents arrested Kolker at the Novosibirsk clinic where he was being treated for terminal cancer - and taken him to Moscow despite his condition.
Death after arrest: Son accuses the FSB of murder
“The FSB killed my father, they knew what condition he was in, but they got him out of the hospital.
Thank you, my country!” Maxim Kolker wrote on the Russian social media platform VKontakte.
The family didn't even get permission to say goodbye.
As
Daily Mail
reported, the family also accused the FSB of torture.
Kolker, laser expert, doctor of physics and mathematics, had headed a laboratory for quantum and optical technology at the University of Novosibirsk.
According to his son, he was suspected of espionage after giving courses during an international conference in China.
During the conference, Kolker was constantly accompanied by an FSB agent to prevent sensitive information from being passed on.
(LP/AFP)