Infectious disease expert is indicted on 69 charges

Three major US science organisations–the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the New York Academy of Sciences–have written to John Ashcroft, attorney general and head of the Justice Department, protesting against the arrest and prosecution of Thomas Campbell Butler for the illegal transportation of hazardous materials and other offences. The case centres on the disappearance of 30 vials of plague bacteria.

The prosecution of Dr Butler “raises extremely serious concerns not only of individual rights but also for the scientific community generally,” the New …