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July 1 Club which includes academicians and professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) published a statement on Dmitry Kolker, a scientist and the head of the Laboratory of Quantum Optic Technologies of the NSU Faculty of Physics, who died in custody three days after his arrest. Club members expressed their condolences to Kolker's family and friends and demanded that those responsible for his death be brought to justice. In addition, the scientists said the procedure for investigating state treason creates «high risks for Russian scientists, primarily those working in the fields most important for Russia.»
The statement claims that Kolker's lectures, which served as a ground for his being accused of «state treason,» had been checked in advance by experts. The experts' report was attached to the statement. The experts' review confirmed that the lectures did not contain state secrets, and the information could be transmitted abroad. «It is a common practice for Russian scientists to make presentations at foreign conferences and seminars or give lectures at universities,» the club members said.
The academicians also strongly decried the actions of the investigative authorities against Kolker.
«Kolker was arrested in a hospital bed in Novosibirsk and taken to the Lefortovo detention center (Moscow) while suffering from terminal stage of pancreatic cancer (he was on artificial feeding). This inhumane action of the investigating authorities grossly violates the elementary principles of humanism».
On July 3, it became known that the scientist, head of the laboratory of quantum optical technologies of the NSU Faculty of Physics Dmitry Kolker, died in the pre-trial detention center. Earlier, Kolker, 54, had been detained on suspicion of treason. He was taken directly from the Novosibirsk hospital, despite the last stage of cancer, put on a plane, brought to Moscow and placed in the pre-trial detention center «Lefortovo.» Prior to this, he refused to testify against Sergei Bagaev, the research director of the Institute of Laser Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Alexei Taichenachev, the director of that institute, Kolker's son Maxim told The Insider. Just before leaving for Moscow, Dmitry Kolker called his son and said goodbye. Also, the scientist's son reported that Kolker was accused of passing information containing state secrets to China.