BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/06/2008

US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser arrested by KGB complains that his condition is disastrous

Dmitry Goryachko, defense lawyer for US citizen Emanuel Zeltser, currently detained by the State Security Committee (KGB) in Belarus, has received documents from the United States, which deal with the medicines seized from his client as he was detained in Minsk, Daily News Bulletin reports. The arrested US lawyer himself complains that his health condition is disastrous, according to Goryachko, news agency BelaPAN says.

Goryachko noted that his client had told him that the results of medical tests which he had undergone were "bad," and that the jail administration had not allowed him to have a ventilator in his cell despite his poor tolerance of heat. Zeltser has been denied his medicines by the KGB on the grounds that they were "psychotropic substances brought into Belarus illegally," Goryachko said.

AIA repeatedly reported that the US lawyer was arrested together with his secretary, Russian citizen Vladlena Funk, upon their arrival in Minsk on March 12. The two were put into the KGB detention centre and charged with using fake documents.

Neither the KGB nor the pair's counsel would disclose details of the case. According to Goryachko, the case has the status of a state secret. On May 27, Seltzer was charged with drug smuggling over medications that he brought into Belarus. Three days later, the Belarusian authorities rejected Washington's appeal to release him on "humanitarian grounds."

News agency Interfax earlier reported, citing the Belarusian State Security Committee spokesman Valery Nadtochayev, that a criminal case was opened against Zeltser last week on charges of drug contraband and illicit trade in drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors.

Source:

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1574

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