BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
15/11/2008
Belarus Sentences U.S. Lawyer To 3 Years
State Department seeks 'humanitarian' release of Emanuel Zeltser.
Emanuel Zeltser, an American lawyer held in detention in Belarus for the last eight months, has been transferred to a penal colony after receiving a three-year sentence in a Minsk court in August.
At a press briefing on Friday, Robert Wood, a State Department spokesman, said the United States has recently asked the government of the dictatorial Alexander Lukashenko to release Zeltser on "humanitarian grounds." Wood indicated that such a release could improve relations between the two countries.
Communication between the United States and Belarus has grown increasingly hostile, with the former Soviet country reportedly saying this week that it is considering deployment of Iskander missiles in alliance with Russia and in opposition to a Western-supported missile system.
Zeltser was arrested on March 12 immediately after exiting a plane in Minsk, although the reasons for his apprehension were not made clear. His secretary, Vladlena Funk, also was detained; she is still in jail in Minsk. (See "Lawyer Zeltser Detained In Minsk.")
A controversial figure, Zeltser sued the Bank of New York in the 1990s as part of a money-laundering scandal involving Russia. He also represented a former Kremlin official, Pavel Borodin, who had been accused by Swiss authorities of money-laundering. Borodin was eventually released and returned to Russia, and received no punishment.
But at the time of his arrest in Minsk, Zeltser was representing the estate of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a Georgian oligarch who died suddenly at his London home in February. Patarkatsishvili's death sparked a legal battle between his heirs and Badri's former business partner, Boris Berezovsky. The Russian billionaire, who is said to have warm relations with Lukashenko, may have played some role in Zeltser's arrest.
Zeltser's representatives say Berezovsky testified at the August trial which resulted in the lawyer's three-year sentence to a penal colony near the town of Mogilev. Funk, they added, will soon be transferred to a separate camp.
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