Authorities in Russia have arrested the former associate of a researcher at a Russian rocket- and spacecraft-design institute who had been in detention for almost a year on treason charges, his son says.
A Moscow court has sent Roman Kovalyov to pretrial detention for two months, his son told the MBKh media online new agency late on June 5.
Yaroslav Kovalyov said that his father was detained and charged with treason after his apartment and summer house near the capital were searched by police.
Kovalyov was working with Viktor Kudryavtsev, a 75-year-old researcher at the Central Research Institute for Machine Building.
Kudryavtsev was arrested in July 2018 on suspicion of passing classified data on hypersonic technology to a research group in Belgium.
Kudryavtsev’s lawyers said in November that he had rejected a deal with investigators who wanted him to testify against Kovalyov in exchange for being transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest.
Kudryavtsev suffered a heart attack while in custody and was transferred in May this year from Moscow’s Lefortovo detention center to a hospital to undergo medical tests
The case against Kudryavtsev and Kovalyov is one of several in recent years in which Russian citizens have been accused of treason or disseminating classified or sensitive information.
Ex-Associate Of Jailed Russian Scientist Charged With Treason Arrested
Scientist Viktor Kudryavtsev was arrested in July 2018 on suspicion of passing classified data to a research group in Belgium. Now one of his ex-associates has been arrested.