AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

After an ordeal that lasted five months, Sergey Piontkovski and his family have left Ukraine. They arrived in the United States on 22 March. Dr. Piontkovski, a marine biologist at the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol, Ukraine, was facing trial on charges of financial improprieties, stemming from grants he received from INTAS, a European organization supporting international scientific cooperation, and from a British government agency. The local prosecutor in Sevastopol dropped all charges and returned Dr. Piontkovski's passport on 25 February, two weeks after representatives from INTAS traveled to Ukraine to protest the government's treatment of him. Sergey Piontkovski and his family left Sevastopol soon afterwards and traveled to Kiev, where they spent several weeks with relatives before boarding their flight to the United States.

Although the family has left Ukraine, their journey is not yet over. They still find themselves very much in transition. They are currently living on Long Island, where the Marine Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook has provided Sergey Piontkovski with temporary office space. The next challenge facing him is finding suitable permanent employment in the field of marine biology in the United States. If any reader of this AAASHRAN update has suggestions, please contact Dr. Piontkovski directly at spiontkovski@notes.cc.sunysb.edu, or by telephone at (631) 632-8694 (office).

Sergey Piontkovski credits the strong and steady advocacy of the international scientific community, and the worldwide attention it focused on this case, with bringing about the positive outcome. He believes that without the Internet, his case would never have become known outside Ukraine. He extends his deep gratitude and appreciation to all those whose support and activities on his behalf finally brought this nightmare, as he refers to it, to a close.

(Sources of information for this alert include Sergey Piontkovski, the http://geocities.com/sep_case/ Web site, and Science magazine.)

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