Professor faces jail in bio-terror scare

[whatelseisnew]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1426321,00.html

Professor faces jail in bio-terror scare

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday February 27, 2005
The Observer

On 10 May last year, Steven Kurtz woke to find that his wife, Hope, had suffered a heart attack in the night and was lying lifeless next to him.

The experience was traumatic, but events that followed have turned the professor's ordeal into macabre persecution. Today he faces a 20-year jail sentence on terrorism-related charges. 'I am facing a long stretch in jail for my beliefs and my art,' Kurtz, 47, an art professor at Buffalo University, New York, told The Observer.

The affair also threatens to jeopardise academic freedom and scientific exchange on either side of the Atlantic, lawyers have warned.

The ordeal of Kurtz, who is to appear in court on Tuesday on charges of mail and wire fraud, began after he called medical emergency services he called medical emergency services. Paramedics arrived to try, unsuccessfully, to revive his wife and noticed the biological equipment in his flat. Kurtz is a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, a group that aims, according to its website, to explore the connections between art, technology and radical politics. He uses the biological equipment to work on presentations such as Flesh Machine and GenTerra, in which audiences participate in DNA experiments.

[Hissyspit]

1. Thanks. I was wondering what was up with that case.

It's absolutely ridiculous. Trumped-up. In normal times I would expect the jury to let them go scott-free. But people are so freaking scared of just the words the prosecution will use.

Mail fraud. What a joke.

[thecrow]

4. Remember in "The Firm"?

That was a charge that stuck.

[psychopomp]

5. "Kurtz believes he is a victim of a political persecution."

" 'I have been vocal about the way the state is using research in germ warfare. That is why they want to get me.'"

Only radicals and artists talk about "the state." ;-) He is probably right. Normally, I would not jump to that conclusion, but these days it seems especially plausible.

[mrfrapp]

2. More

Keep up to date with this story here.

I first came across this story through a speech at the 5th HOPE. It's around 6.5MB and lasts an hour or so. The portion discussing the CAE begins at 27mins.

[Hissyspit]

3. Thanks for that. I have that site bookmarked, but had not checked it...

in a while.