American Lawyer Zeltser placed to Minsk mental hospital

The US Department of State has appealed Belarus to allow representatives of the US Embassy in Minsk to visit the US citizen detained on unaccounted-for charges.

The US State Department spokesperson Tom Casey delivered a statement on Monday saying that lawyer Emanuel Zeltser suffers from serious health problems and needs daily medications, Voice of America informs.

Tom Casey has also said that from the moment of arrest on March 12 the Belarusian authorities allowed representati9ves of the US Embassy to visit Mr. Zeltser only once, and haven’t informed that he had been transferred to a mental hospital.

The US State Department’s spokesperson has stated that Belarus must follow international legal commitments and allow the imprisoned US citizen to meet representatives of the Embassy in Minsk regularly.

Emanuel Zeltser was arrested last month when he arrived to Minsk for a meeting with clients. The Belarusian authorities charged him with having forged documents with him, but details of official charges haven’t been revealed.

Emanuel’s brother, Mark Zeltser, told to Voice of America that the charges are “groundless nonsense”.

Emanuel Zeltser currently heads the American Russian Law Institute based in New York. He is an expert on money laundering combat in the former Soviet Union.

The relations between the US and Belarus deteriorated crucially after sanctions were imposed by the US against Belneftekhim concern. Washington has reduced the staff in Minsk Embassy and suspended issuing entry visas to Belarusians.