District Judge Leo T. Sorokin Wednesday dismissed a criminal indictment against Kseniia Petrova, acting on a request Tuesday evening from District of Massachusetts prosecutors. Petrova, a Russian-born Harvard Medical School researcher, was held in immigration custody for three months last year before being charged with criminal smuggling.
The smuggling accusation was set in motion Feb. 16, 2025, when Petrova arrived at Logan Airport on a flight from France with inert biological samples of clawed frog embryos in her checked luggage. The samples were found, her visa was illegally canceled (so a court found), and she was shipped to immigration detention — first in Vermont, where her lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition, and subsequently in Louisiana. In May 2025, when it seemed likely that a Vermont federal court was set to order her release from immigration custody, Petrova was indicted on criminal smuggling charges — because, the government said, she did not declare the embryo samples to customs — and transferred to criminal custody in Massachusetts. She has been out on criminal bail since June 12, 2025.
Reached Tuesday night, Marc Kirschner, the Harvard Medical School professor whose lab employs Petrova, called the news “Terrific!” He said, “She’s really a wonderful, wonderful person, and of course she didn’t deserve all that garbage that she got.”
The dismissal request comes after a pair of favorable rulings in her criminal case where two judges found that Petrova is entitled to discovery into whether the government selectively and vindictively prosecuted her.
The first was in April, when Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein wrote in an opinion that “It appears clear that Ms. Petrova’s status as a Harvard researcher played a significant part in the manner in which her case was handled, and that the government was cognizant of, and sensitive to, the publicity surrounding her detention.”
Dein ruled that Petrova had provided evidence she was only targeted by the government because she held a J-1 visa and was studying at Harvard. Dein also noted Customs and Border Protection had never previously charged someone in her circumstances with a felony, “much less stripped (them) of their visa.”
The government appealed on May 4. Sorokin denied the appeal on Oct. 8, saying “Judge Dein’s decision was neither contrary to law nor clearly erroneous.”
The case was set for a status conference to determine next steps at the end of November.
Leah B. Foley, the sitting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts who signed Tuesday night’s filing, wrote that continuing the litigation against Petrova “would divert significant time and attention from more substantial federal interests” and that “the resource costs of continuing this prosecution outweigh the public interest in its resolution.”
Foley had released a video announcing Petrova’s indictment in May 2025, a very unusual step.
“The DOJ never should have brought this highly unusual ‘smuggling’ prosecution,” said BIll Fick of Fick and Marx, Petrova’s lead criminal defense attorney. “Petrova only sought to advance medical research into aging that could benefit everyone, and her handling of scientific samples — inert, non-living, non-toxic, frog embryos — never posed any danger to anyone,” he said.
“Petrova has shown tremendous courage, and we are relieved that this chapter of her terrible ordeal will soon be over,” Fick said.
Other cases still underway
Petrova’s non-criminal cases remain ongoing, and are complex. Because her visa was cancelled when she arrived from France, she “still has no lawful immigration status,” said Gregory Romanovsky, Petrova’s immigration attorney. Petrova has applied for asylum in the US, and her final hearing is set for September 2027, he said.
In addition, Romanovsky said, Petrova has filed a civil lawsuit “challenging USCIS’s denial of Kseniia’s immigrant petition as an individual of extraordinary ability.” Also “in the works,” he said, are a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit seeking damages for her unlawful detention, as well as a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records about her case.
As to her habeas case in Vermont, which she won, last week Romanovsky filed a motion in Vermont federal court seeking $245,000 in fees because she “prevailed on both the [Administrative Procedure Act] claim and her request for release from immigration detention.” The court’s ruling on the APA claim invalidated Customs and Border Protection’s cancellation of her visa.
The government’s response to the fee motion is due next week.
Petrova did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story was updated Tuesday to add comment from Petrova’s criminal defense and immigration attorneys. On Wednesday, it was updated to note the request for dismissal was granted.
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