US Citizen Zeltser deprived right of defense
2- 3.11.2008, 12:14
Emanuel Zeltser, the US citizen who had been convicted in Belarus, is not given the copy of the verdict of the court, which makes it impossible for him to take an appeal from it.
Interfax was told about that by Zeltser’s lawyer Zmitser Harachka. “For about 3 moths we cannot receive a copy of the verdict of Minsk city court. It makes impossible to file a supervisory appeal on formal reasons,” the lawyer noted.
As said by him, “if Minsk city court would have issued the copy of the verdict, we would be able to address to the chairman of the Supreme Court of Belarus, or the Prosecutor General. But without the copy of the verdict it is impossible. In fact, Zeltser has been denied the right of defense”.
The lawyer noted that “he many times addressed Minsk city court with an appeal to give him a copy of the verdict to E. Zeltser, but hadn’t received a founded answer.” Zmitser Harachka underlined that “the Criminal Procedural Code of Belarus does not have a norm that the convicted does not have a right to receive a copy of the verdict, even if the process was held behind the closed doors”.
Z. Harachka has also stated that his client “founds the verdict to him illegal and regrets that he cannot appeal against it”. “If there would be a possibility to appeal the verdict, E. Zeltser, as a citizen of a different state, could address not only the Belarusian court,” Z. Harachka noted. “As my client believes, in fact he is condemned for professional activities,” Z. Harachka added.
“This position could be extrapolated to Bruskova (Vladlena Bruskova, or Funk, E. Zeltser’s secretary who was detained with him), the interlocutor added.
As the agency informed earlier, on August 11, 2008 E. Zeltser was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment in standard regime penal colony by Minsk city court for attempted industrial espionage and the use of fake documents. V. Funk got one year in prison. They both denied their guilt.
Last Friday the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the verdict after studying the appeal against the verdict.
Emanuel Zeltser and his secretary, Russian citizen Vladlena Funk were detained in the National Airport Minsk on March 12. The process was held from July 30 till August 11 at a close court session.
The US citizen is also accused of drug smuggling but this accusation was lifted as the court regarded the drugs to be medicaments that Zeltser has been using for the last 15 years.
Initially the session of the Supreme Court was scheduled on September 26, but it was postponed, as the court needed “additional documents”. As the BelaPAN was told by Zmitser Harachka, nobody addressed him to receive additional documents.
The US has demanded Mr Zeltser's release on humanitarian grounds, saying that his health may suffer irreversibly and that he may die since he couldn’t take the prescribed medicines while arrested. In August the US Embassy send all necessary drugs to Belarus, but they haven’t been given to E. Zeltser. Meanwhile, due medical care for Zeltser has been named one of the key conditions for normalization of American-Belarusian relations.
US law firm Patton Boggs has urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reject Belarus’ request for a $2-billion loan unless American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser is released from prison. Freedom House, an international human rights watchdog, has sent a similar petition to the IMF.
