MOSCOW, July 16 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Tuesday prolonged detention term for Viktor Kudryavtsev, a 75-year-old scientist of the Central Research Institute for Engineering Technology (TsNIImash) charged with treason, until October 20, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

Upon a motion filed by a prosecutor, the hearing was held behind closed doors.

Kudryavtsev is accused of disclosure of classified information to the Belgian Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamic, his attorney Yevgeny Smirnov told RAPSI previously. Investigators claim that the researcher has transferred information via email from an unmarked computer. However, the scientist has not worked with such secret documents since late 90s, according to the lawyer.

The researcher pleaded not guilty and refused to testify in the case, Smirnov added.

In May, Kudryavtsev was discharged from a hospital where he was placed for health examination following a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). According to another defense lawyer Ivan Pavlovov, ECHR obliged Russian authorities to conduct a medical examination of Kudryavtsev in a clinic independent of the penitentiary system. However, the lawyer said that the hospital where the researcher was placed in, did not fully meet the criteria specified in the ECHR ruling.

Earlier, Pavlov told RAPSI that investigators banned visits to the researcher after Kudryavtsev refused to make a deal with them envisaging guilty plea and testifying against his student.

In early July, one more employee of the Central Research Institute for Engineering Technology (TsNIImash) Sergey Meshcheryakov was charged with treason. Unlike Kudryavtsev, he was put under house arrest.