The scientist, head of the laboratory of quantum optical technologies of the Faculty of Physics of NSU, Dmitry Kolker, has died, Komsomolskaya Pravda writes , citing the scientist's relatives.
Earlier, 54-year-old Kolker was 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 Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. Prior to that, he refused to testify against the scientific director of the Institute of Laser Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Bagaev and the director of this institute Alexei Taychenachev. Kolker's son Maxim told The Insider. Right before flying to Moscow, Dmitry Kolker called his son and said goodbye. “Perhaps he understood his condition,” Maxim Kolker added.
“He was invited, they wanted him to testify against the chief researcher Bagaev and the director of the Institute of Laser Physics. He said that he would not tell lies and what he did not know about. Some kind of incitement took place, ”explained Maxim Kolker. The scientist's son also reported that Kolker was accused of transferring information containing state secrets to China.
He also revealed that his father had stage IV cancer and metastases. He went to a private clinic for chemotherapy, but on June 29 his condition worsened and he was urgently hospitalized. “In normal condition, he weighed 100 kg, now – 67 kg. Five months ago, the doctor said that if nothing is done, then he will have three months to live, if something is done, then he can be extended, but how much is unknown, because there was already the fourth degree, ”he said.
Maxim Kolker is sure that when his father was taken from the hospital, no medicine was taken for him. “They had no idea who they were taking and in what condition,” he added.
Maxim Kolker notes that in the past few years, such attention by the FSB to scientists in Novosibirsk has been a common practice. “But when a person is taken from the hospital, put on a plane and packed into a pre-trial detention center in Moscow on the same day, this is not exactly a common thing,” he says.
Dmitry Kolker traveled to China several times with lectures. According to his son, he was accompanied on trips by an FSB officer who made sure that the scientist did not communicate with students and colleagues in English, but only in Russian through an interpreter.
The scientist's son insists that the documents related to his father's scientific research did not contain state secrets. All of them underwent special examination.