Case of arrested US citizen Zeltser to be tried in UN

The files of the case of the US citizen Emanuel Zeltser who is kept in the Belarusian prison are sent to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

It has been said to Radio Svaboda by E. Zeltser’s lawyer Zmitser Harachka.

Emanuel Zeltser was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment for alleged commercial espionage against Belarus by Minsk city court. Zeltser’s complaint was studies by the Supreme Court and upheld the verdict. Lawyer Zmitser Harachka still cannot receive a copy of the decree of the court. He believes it is an attempt to create artificial barriers in the way of addressing international judicial instances. However, one of these days E. Zeltser’s case files were sent for consideration by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. It has been done by US lawyers who are in charge of the case of their colleague Emanuel Zeltser.

Lawyer Zmitser Harachnka who defends interests of Emanuel Zeltser in Belarus, welcomes the fact that more and more people are engaged in this client’s case.

“Everybody tries to explain and prove that the person is here, so to say, not quite justly, not exactly legally,” the lawyer explains.

Emanuel Zeltser is serving a term in the colony No. 15 in Mahilyou. According to the reports received from the colony, the administration sent him to the party No. 1 and decided where he would work. He is to maintain order in the club. But the former lawyer hasn’t started to do this work still.

“He has become a member of the party formally, but he is still in the hospital. I think he is to stay there for some more time. He still feels bad: his blood pressure is unstable, he has pain in back and legs. Three are no changes for the better,” Zmitser Harachka said.

Emanuel Zeltser suffers from a number of chronic and other diseases. An independent doctor, who examined E. Zeltser in the KGB remand prison in summer, recommended placing him into a civil hospital with proper conditions for good treatment. But the Belarusian regime hasn’t done that. Besides, Emanuel Zeltser hasn’t been allowed to take medicines he had got used to. According to knowledge of Zmitser Harachka, medicines he is taking now just support his current state, but do not help to cure him.

Lawyer Zmitser Harachka refuted reports about plans to place Emanuel Zeltser into the prison hospital in Minsk. As said by the lawyer, unstable blood pressure of his client prevents that.

“This problem started after he was transferred from Minsk remand prison into Mahilyou colony. His pressure jumps all the time, state of health cannot improve,” he confirmed.

On December 30, lawyer Zmitser Harachka plans to visit E. Zeltser in the colony again.

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. Some media supposed that E. Zeltser’s arrest is connected with a case a dispute over the estate of businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, died in London. Zeltser was invited as a lawyer of US citizen Joseph Kay, a distant relative of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili. As said by Mark Zeltser, Boris Berezovsky who allegedly provoked Zeltser’s arrest, lays claims for the assets too. The Russian exiled oligarch denies his implication in the case.

Vladlena Funk (Bruskova), sentenced to a year of imprisonment, serves the sentence in Homel women colony. According to Zmitser Harachka, Zeltser’s secretary is forces to sew quilted jackets.