Zeltser ahead of trial: relatives don’t know if he will survive

On 30 June arrested in Minsk US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser and his secretary Russian citizen Vladlena Funk (Bluzkova) will begin to study the materials of the criminal case.

They have a common accusation – using of consciously forged documents by a group of persons. This case has a status of a state secret and can’t be commented on. Zeltser is expected to be charged with psychotropic substances smuggling. As lawyer Zmitser Harachka told to “Belorusskie Novosti” the both accusations are most likely to be submitted to the court.

Meantime, Zeltser’s relatives, living in New York, received an answer to their request to the Prosecutor-General’s Office on 19 June. The letter under the date of 14 April reached the USA only after 2 months. The document says “Zeltser has no medical contraindication for being in a jail”. It also says Zeltser was examined by a doctor when taking him to the jail. A physician ordered Zeltser a course of treatment and he regularly takes the prescribed medicines.”

It should be reminded that Valer Nadtachaeu, spokesman of the State Security Committee (KGB), said “Zeltser’s state of health allows him to be in a jail.”

However, the lawyer calls the information of the law enforcement bodies in question. As Harachka knows, Zeltser wasn’t examined at the beginning of the detention and wasn’t ordered treatment. The lawyer filed a request to check his data and expects the investigatory bodies will give some details if the medical examination took place, who examined, and what medicines were prescribed to his client.

It should be noticed that Zeltser’s relatives and his physician appealed repeatedly to different bodies, saying the medicines, seized as illegally imported psychotropic substances, were vital for the arrested. Over the last 15 years The US lawyer has taken medicines for various illnesses- diabetes, diabetic polyneuropathy, lumbosacral radiculopathy, gouty arthritis.

The situation about Zeltser and Funk, detained by the Belarusian KGB in Minsk on 12 March, is complicated and tangled. The both criminal cases against Zeltser as well as his sudden detention by the KGB are surprising.

Zeltser is a lawyer of the US citizen Joseph Kay, who is a distinct relative of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili. After Patarkatsishvili’s death on 13 February, J. Kay presented documents, proving he was an executor of his will. The documents were prepared by E. Zeltser, but B. Patarkatsishvili’s relatives say they were forged, after that E. Zeltser was detained in Minsk. On 13 May Tbilisi court has recognized Joseph Kay as a legitimate executor of the will, by this confirming the documents are authentic.