The Harvard Medical School scientist from Russia who has been detained since February walked out of the Moakley Courthouse on Thursday afternoon with a giant smile on her face and a magenta shirt reading “Hakuna Matata.”
Kseniia Petrova, 31, was released from U.S. Marshals’ custody by U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein, with direction to report to probation “as directed” and travel restricted to New England while her felony charge is pending.
Petrova was born in Russia and has worked at Harvard Medical School’s Kirschner Lab since 2023, researching ways to more quickly diagnose and detect cancer. She was detained at Logan International Airport on February 16 and has been held on criminal charges since she failed to declare frog embryos in her luggage. She was bringing them into the country for research purposes.
“I just want to thank you for supporting me, for holding this story, especially and first of all to my friends and colleagues,” Petrova told a crowd outside of the courthouse. She also thanked reporters for making “her story so famous.” She said she received many letters of support while in custody, saying, “I never really felt alone.”
Her attorneys said Petrova has offers to work in other countries, and isn’t sure if she wants to remain in the United States.
“Ms. Petrova is very grateful to the federal courts for releasing her from custody while we deal with the pending criminal charge,” said her attorney William Fick.
“Obviously, it’s hard to explain why someone like Kseniia had to be jailed for four months. She’s not a danger to anybody. She’s not a flight risk. But at this point the immigration case is ongoing and her legal claim is very strong,” said her immigration attorney Gregory Romanovsky.
Her attorneys said whether or not she can continue her work at Harvard Medical School is a “complicated legal immigration question” and declined to comment further.
Prosecutors withdrew a request to hold Petrova without bail while the case against her is pending.
Her immigration court proceedings are ongoing as the government seeks to deport Petrova back to Russia. Petrova’s attorneys have contested her being deported in court filings, writing that she could be imprisoned for her protesting the county’s invasion of Ukraine.
She is also facing a smuggling charge, attempting to bring the frog embryos into the country, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000. A hearing in that case is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 18.
Petrova was transferred to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, and was ordered released by District Judge Christina Reiss on May 28. But that didn’t happen, and her attorneys filed a motion to have her transfer expedited as she remained in criminal custody after the order.
Petrova has pushed back against the Department of Homeland Security’s claims, saying she never provided false information when being questioned at the airport.
“Some of my words were misunderstood and inaccurately reflected in the statement that the officer presented for my signature,” Petrova wrote in May.
She said during the inspection at the airport, she told an officer she was in the United States on a J-1 visa for researchers, and received an admission stamp on her passport. Petrova said she was never asked if she was carrying biological material into the country.
“When I noticed that and other inaccuracies in the written statement, I pointed them out and asked the officer to make corrections,” she said.
