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| 16.03.200609:50 (GMT) | The term of preliminary detention of Andrey Zamyatnin, a Russian researcher in biology who had been arrested in Sweden on February 15 on espionage charges ends today. The Stockholm district court will hold hearings in the case. The Prosecutor’s Office should bring in an indictment or good grounds for extending the detention term for the period of investigation. Under local laws persons suspected of espionage can be kept in detention pending trial for up to 15 months. The Russian researcher’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson told Itar-Tass that over the past two weeks he has been often meeting his client. According to Salomonsson, Zamyatnin is feeling well. He still denies all charges. “The Swedish ambassador Johan Molander was told that Russia insists on Zamyatnin’s immediate release. The Russian Foreign Ministry made it clear that the Swedish authorities’ actions in this incident would affect Russian — Swedish relations in general”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a release on Thursday.
Earlier, Moscow had already demanded explanation from Sweden for the detention of the 29-year-old Russian scientist. The Russian researcher was detained in the Uppsala town on February 15 after the country’s national security service had for several months kept him under surveillance. The researcher is facing six years in prison if found guilty. A search was conducted in his apartment.
The Swedish investigators claimed that the researcher had been engaged in “active undermining work” for about a year and “undermined the country’s safety by his criminal activities”. Officials declined to say what kind of information Zamyatnin was selling. They did not disclose what country he is accused of working for, either.
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