BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
26/03/2008
US Embassy officers have no access to American lawyer held in KGB detention centre in Minsk
Jonathan Moore, the US Charge d'Affaires, confirmed that US embassy officers had not met with the detained lawyer Emanuel Zeltser, 54, as of March 24 afternoon, online edition of the daily Belorusskiye novosti reports.
AIA reported earlier that the known US lawyer was arrested on March 12 as he arrived in Minsk for meetings with his clients. He has been held in the detention center of the State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB) since. Zeltser, who heads non-governmental organization Russian-American Law Institute, was traveling from Britain with his secretary, Russian national Vladlena Funk, who also was detained. The Belarusian State Security Committee has declined to comment on the arrest of the pair, Belorusskiye novosti adds.
In an interview with news agency BelaPAN, Moore said he had two meetings with the consular department of the Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs that assured him that permission had been granted for access. However, in fact, the embassy personnel had no access to Russian-born Zeltser.
Source:
http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1519
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