Emanuel Zeltser’s counsel filed complaint to UN Human Rights Committee
- 23.12.2008, 14:01
On December 22, a complaint alleging the Belarusian authorities violate civil and political right of US citizen Emanuel Zeltser serving a three-year term of imprisonment was filed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
As BelaPAN reports, counsel Joseph L. Brand (Patton Boggs law firm, USA) requests immediate interim measures and states Mr Zeltser should be released to return to the US for rehabilitation.
The 21-page complaint notes Emanuel Zeltser, who has been held captive since March 12, 2008, has faced “physical beatings, inhumane and unsanitary treatment, including withholding physician-prescribed medications”, during his trial and at a penal colony.
The lawyer notes Mr Zeltser never intended to visit Belarus.
“His last memory before he awoke in Belarus was having a cup of coffee in London,” the complaint says. It also reads state of health of the US citizen deteriorated in prison, he “suffered severe pain and mental deterioration, and denied proper medical treatment.”
On August 11, the Minsk city court sentenced American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser to three years of imprisonment in a minimal security penal colony. Zeltser is a lawyer of US citizen Joseph Kay, a distant relative of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili.
Emanuel Zeltser is in penal colony #15, Mahilou.
The US Department of State and House of Representatives of the US Congress urged the Belarusian authorities to release Emanuel Zeltser.
