June 1 (Reuters) - The criminal trial of a prominent Russian physicist accused of state treason opened in St Petersburg on Thursday amid tight secrecy and concerns over the health of the elderly defendant.
The case, marked as "top secret", is closed to the media and public, the St Petersburg court has said.
Maslov was a professor and researcher at the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, one of Russia's top scientific centres.
Soon afterwards, Maslov was sent to Lefortovo prison in Moscow, a former KGB interrogation site, before being transferred to St. Petersburg to stand trial.
Russia's parliament voted in April to increase the maximum penalty for treason to life imprisonment from 20 years.
Persons:
Anatoly Maslov, Maslov, Lucy Papachristou, Gareth Jones
Organizations:
Kremlin, Reuters, Khristianovich, of Theoretical, Mechanics, Thomson
Locations:
Russian, St Petersburg, Siberian, Novosibirsk, Petersburg, Maslov, Moscow, St, hypersonics, China