After a year in prison and 8 days of isolation Vladlena Funk deported from Belarus

A secretary of US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser, Vladlena Funk (Bruskova) was deported to Russia on March 20. She was made to get on a train in Homel.

The Charter’97 press-centre was informed about that by the lawyer of the Russian citizen, Zmitser Harachka.

Today at 2.35 p.m. Vladlena Funk was placed on a train and deported to Russia. She is to get off the train on the station of Novozybkov,” Zmitser Harachka said to the Charter’97 press-centre.

As said by the lawyer, documents on Russian citizenship of Vladlena Funk offered by the Russian consulate were enough for deportation.

In a few hours Funk was to cross the Russian border. Zmitser Harachka stated that he is to meet the woman on the station in Novozybkov to make sure that she reached the destination.

As we have informed, Vladlena Funk was to be released on March 12. She served the punishement in the colony in Homel. But as soon as V. Funk left the colony in the morning, police officers detained her and guarded to the temporary detention facility of the Chyhunachny district of Homel.

V. Funk is banned entry to the territory of Belarus for 10 years.

Belarusian human rights activists expressed concern over isolation of Vladlena Funk.

The US citizen Emanuel Zeltser and his secretary Vladlena Funk (Bruskova) were detained on August 11, 2008 Minsk city court sentenced Vladlena Funk to 3 years of imprisonment for collection of commercial information and using fake documents. A US citizen Emanuel Zeltser, involved in the case as well, was sentenced to 3 years in a minimum security penal colony for commercial espionage and use of fake documents.

The US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser and his secretary Vladlena Funk (Bruskova), a Russian citizen registered in Nizhniy Novgorod, were detained in the airport Minsk-2 in Mach 2008. First they were charged with use of fake documents. Later law-enforcers added charged of illegal collection of commercial information.

The US many times called upon the Belarusian authorities to release E. Zeltser on humanitarian grounds, and his health has seriously deteriorated behind the bars. The defence and family of E. Zeltser called the verdict to him a death sentence, because of his poor health. They believe that the prisoner can not survive until the end of the prison term.