MOSCOW: The first of three Russian hypersonic missile scientists arrested on suspicion of treason would go on trial next week, which involves accusations of betraying secrets to China.
According to AL Jazeera, the criminal case against Anatoly Maslov, 76, would open in Saint Petersburg’s city court on June 1.
Maslov and other colleagues at the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Siberia were arrested for treason over the previous year.
The three are specialists in hypersonic – crucial to developing Russia’s next generation of advanced missiles capable of flying at ten times the speed of sound.
The court said the case, marked as “top secret,” would be closed to the media and public. The Kremlin previously said the suspects face “severe accusations” though details of their alleged crime are classified.
Two sources told Reuters that fellow suspect Alexander Shiplyuk, the director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, is suspected of passing secrets to China at the conference there in 2017. They said he denied the charge, saying the information was publicly available online.
The Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics has extensive international links and said it is registered as part of Russia’s army-industrial complex on its website.
Maslov – whose custody has been extended until November 10 in the closed hearing was arrested last June in Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia. Soon afterwards, he was sent to Lefortovo prison in Russia, the ex-KGB interrogation site.
In St Petersburg, he has been in the FSB security service jail on Shalernaya Street, where the KGB once held many Soviet dissidents, Maslov’s lawyer Olga Dinze told Reuters.
