Emanuel Zeltser not included in the amnesty

The administration of the Mahilou penal colony, where US national Emanuel Zeltser is serving his punishment, doesn’t have any grounds to consider a question of including him in the amnesty.

According to lawyer Zmitser Harachka, a no claim notice must be sent to the penal colony from the Minsk City Court. Then the administration will have the formal right to decide if Zeltser can be included in the amnesty, BelaPAN reports.

The lawyer thinks Zeltser can be amnestied. The US citizen, sentenced to three years in prison last year, has served a third of the term (though the law requires serving a quarter of the term). It should be noticed that while Emanuel Zeltser remains in prison, Belarusian singer Viktar Kalina, sentenced to 5.5 years of imprisonment on June 12, 2007, was released.

It should be reminded that Emanuel Zeltser and Vladlena Funk were detained in Minsk on March 12, 2008. On August 11, the Misnk City Court found them guilty of the use of fake documents and attempted commercial espionage. Zeltser was sentenced to thee years in prison, Funk got one year of imprisonment. On October 31, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the verdicts. All trials were held behind the closed doors. Vladlena Funk sewed quilted jackets in the penal colony.

Vladena Fnk, who was serving her term in the Homel penal colony, was released. She refuses to reveal any details about this criminal case fearing for Zeltser’s life. Emanuel Zeltser, arrested on March 12, 2008 and sentenced for three years, is still in a penal colony in Mahilou. He spends most of his time in a prison medical unit due to his bad health. The US government has called on the Belarusian authorities to release Zeltser on humanitarian grounds, but Minsk refuses to do this.