A lesson for any society aspiring to true liberty for all its denizens.
Sociologist is charged with treason for sharing public information with foreign professors.
The case holding everyone's attention concerns Igor Sutyagin, a sociological researcher with Moscow's prestigious Institute of Canada-USA Studies, who is charged with espionage for carrying out seemingly routine academic cooperation with Canadian and British colleagues. His trial has been postponed twice. We are all holding our breath to see if this holds up in court. Violations of civil rights and liberties by public officers are deemed weird drifts from standard legal procedure. Institutional harassment is considered out of the question, since our public officers are regarded to be above and beyond such low blows to civil rights and liberty.