Vladlena Funk to spend a year in custody in Belarus? (Video)

A procedure of forceful expulsion of Zeltser’s secretary may last up to a year.

Mother of Vladlena Funk (Bruskova) – secretary of arrested and convicted in Belarus US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser – learnt this yesterday from the Russia’s Embassy in Minsk, where the woman addressed asking to help release her daughter, a Russian citizen.

On March 16, Valentina Bruskova was denied a meeting with her daughter, who has been in the Homel temporary detention facility for five days after her release from the penal colony.

Valentina Bruskova, her daughter Alyona and lawyer Zmitser Harachka visited the Russia’s embassy in Minsk on the same day. They were said in the diplomatic mission that on March 13 ambassador Aleksandr Surikov had spoken with Belarusian interior minister Uladzimir Navumau and asked him to speed up a process of expulsion of Russian citizen Funk. The Ministry of Internal Affaires promised to help.

The embassy also said the in accordance with the law a procedure of forceful expulsion, which would be applied to Funk, who “threatens the national security of Belarus”, may last up to a year.

In an interview to BelaPAN V. Bruskova said she was surprised to hear that.

“It’s difficult for me to understand this wording. I don’t understand how this accusation can be brought. I just understand that my daughter was convicted on an unknown ground, as the lawyer said for “industrial espionage,” V. Bruskova said.

On March 16 the Vruskovas and the lawyer visited Homel. The relatives were denied a meeting with the detained.

“I was denied a meeting, I don’t why,” V. Bruskova said. “I could just wave to her, thought I couldn’t see her. That was our meeting.”

In an answer to a question by BelaPAN about whether the Russia’s embassy in Belarus helped the woman, V. Funk said the embassy helped her on the first stage only on her request.

“A representative of the embassy visited her in the temporary detention facility. He talked with the administration to pass cloths, medicines and food to Vladlena. They helped men in this, but only on my request. The embassy didn’t offer help itself,” she noted.

The woman hopes representatives of the Russian embassy will lend support in release of her daughter: “She has served her term, deserved or undeserved, and I want to see her at large.”

It should be reminded that Vladlena Bruskova, who served her punishment in the penal colony in Homel, has her term expired last week. But as soon as V. Bruskova left the colony in the morning, militia officers detained her and guarded to the temporary detention facility of the Chyhunachny district of Homel.

It was decided to expel her. V. Bruskova is banned from visiting Belarus for a period of 10 years. On August 11, 2008, the Minsk City Court sentenced V. Bruskova tp 1 year of imprisonment for commercial information gathering and the use of fake documents. US citizen E. Zeltser was also involved in this case. He got three yeas in minimum security penal colony for industrial espionage and the use of fake documents.

E. Zeltser and V. Bruskova were detained in Minsk on March 12, 1008. The latter worked as Zeltser’s secretary at that time.