A Chinese scientist arrested in the case of smuggling of biological material in Michigan, USA, confessed his crime in the court on Wednesday. However, the court considered the sentence of five months he had already spent in jail as final and now he will be released and sent back to China. Yunqing Jian, 33, who was working as a temporary researcher in a lab at the University of Michigan, was arrested in June 2024. She was accused of conspiring with her lover Junyong Liu to bring a dangerous fungus to America.
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What is Fusarium Graminearum?
This fungus is caused by a pathogen called Fusarium graminearum, which can attack and destroy crops like wheat, barley, corn and rice. This fungus is already present in some areas of the United States, depending on weather and crop conditions, but it is a legal offense to bring it from abroad without government permission.
There was a possibility of serious loss – Government lawyer
US government lawyer Michael Martin said in court that this act was likely to cause ‘serious harm’, although he did not elaborate on how the harm could have been caused. He said, ‘I don’t have proof that he did it with bad intentions, but I also don’t have proof that he did it for the good of humanity.’
Chinese scientist confessed to the crime in court
The federal judge in charge of the case, Susan DeClerck, described the case as very strange and said that the accused was a ‘highly qualified researcher’. In this case, while the government lawyer had demanded a sentence of two years, the judge gave a sentence of only five months, which Gian had already spent in jail. Yunqing Jian was presented in chains in court, she apologized to the court and said that she was under pressure. In his written statement, he wrote, ‘I did not follow the rules because I was under pressure to carry forward the research and produce results. My aim was not to harm anyone, but to work on ways to protect crops from diseases.
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Samples were recovered at Detroit airport
His fellow researcher Junyong Liu, from whom samples were recovered at the Detroit airport, is currently in China and the chances of his return to the US are said to be very slim. The court has ordered that Yunqing Jian be released and sent to China soon.
