BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/06/2008

Belarus brings new charges of commercial espionage against jailed US citizen Emanuel Zeltser

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - The Belarusian KGB filed new charges of commercial espionage Friday against a U.S. citizen who has been jailed for more than three months in the former Soviet republic. The Russian-born Emanuel Zeltser is a lawyer whose clients have included late Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, whose estate has become a subject of dispute.

Zeltser's imprisonment and concerns about his health have prompted protests from the United States. An American doctor who was allowed to examine Zeltser, who is 54, in prison Thursday confirmed that his health was failing.

KGB spokesman Valery Nadtochayev said charges of commercial espionage were brought against Zeltser and another U.S. citizen, Joseph Kay, who has claimed some of Patarkatsishvili's assets. The whereabouts of Kay, an ethnic Georgian, were not immediately clear.

The KGB did not explain the charges. Zeltser's defense lawyer, Dmitry Gorvachko, said he was forbidden to reveal the essence of the new accusations.

Political analyst Svetlana Kalinkina said Patarkatsishvili owned several factories in Belarus, which his business partner Boris Berezovsky would now like to take over. She claimed Berezovsky, a Russian tycoon who lives in exile in London, and the Belarusian government were working in concert.

Berezovsky has spoken out against Kay's claims in interviews with Georgian journalists. Patarkatsishvili's family also has challenged Kay's claims to the billionaire's assets. Patarkatsishvili died suddenly in London in February.

Zeltser heads the non-governmental American Russian Law Institute in New York and is an expert on organized crime and money laundering, particularly in former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Belarus.

He was detained March 12 as he arrived in Belarus. He has been charged with using false documents tied to Patarkatsishvili and drug smuggling. The KGB confiscated medicine from Zeltser that he said was for treating his diabetes and other illnesses.

Source:

http://www.pr-inside.com/belarus-brings-new-charges-of-commercial-r670915.htm

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