American doctor to examine US citizen Zeltser in penal colony
- 6.01.2009, 18:04
On January 6, US citizen Emanuel Zeltser, kept in a Mahilou penal colony, is to be examined by an American specialist again.
BelaPAN has learnt it from Zmitser Harachka, lawyer of the prisoner.
Doctor Albert Benchabbat arrives in the evening January 5. Both Zeltser’s defence and US embassy in Belarus were seeking for another medical examination.
Both Belarusian and US sides agreed on a candidature of Albert Benchabbat. He was allowed to examine Zeltser in June 2008. The report of Mr Benchabbat noted “the patient’s health is in a very poor state, his medical condition is rapidly deteriorating”, the prisoner was depressed and unable to walk and stand without help, suffered pains.
The doctor recommended that the prisoner should take pain killers, he had been taking before his arrest, as “he may not survive the detention”.
Later Mr Benchabbat wrote an open letter to Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka calling on him to provide necessary medical care for the prisoner. According to the doctor, none of his recommendations stated in the report had been implemented, the medical report appears to have been marked as 'secret' and hidden and, thus, never been presented to the prison medical personnel in violation of the Belarusian and the international law.
Emanuel Zeltser and his secretary Russian citizen Vladlena Funk (Bruskova) were arrested on March 2, 2008. On August 11, the Minsk city court sentenced Zeltser to three years of imprisonment allegedly for attempted industrial espionage and the use of fake documents. Funk got one year of imprisonment. The Supreme Court of Belarus upheld this judgement on October 31. All trials in this case were held behind the closed doors.
The defence doesn’t plan to appeal Lukashenka for pardon because the both prisoners don’t admit their guilt. Zeltser is serving his term of punishment in correctional colony #15 in Mahilou, and Funk – in women’s penal colony #4 in Homel.
The US continues to insist on Zeltser’s release on humanitarian grounds in view of difficult state of health of the prisoner.
