US citizen Zeltser to be transferred to Mahilou penal colony

• 12.11.2008, 14:53

US citizen Emanuel Zeltser, imprisoned in Belarus since March current year, will serve a term of imprisonment in the general regime penal colony of Mahilou. Radio Svaboda learnt it from Zeltser’s lawyer Zmitser Harachka. The state of health of the convicted causes great concern.

“Emanuel Zeltser was sent to colony in the evening November 11, Vladlena Funk will be sent on Saturday, November 15. I worry how Mr Zeltser will take this transfer, as his state of health is rather serious, and any transfer is a hard test for him,” Zmitser Harachka said.

Secretary of the US lawyer Vladlena Funk will be transferred to female penal colony in Homel.

It should be reminded that Emanuel Zeltser was sentenced by the Minsk city court to 3 years of imprisonment on charges of commercial espionage, but he and Vladlena Funk (Bruskova), sentenced to a year of imprisonment, have never admitted their guilt.

The US government has repeatedly demanded release of Mr Zeltser and Ms Funk on humanitarian grounds, but they remain behind the bars so far.

Zeltser’s relatives in the United States think Russian exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky has some relation to Zeltser’s arrest. However, Berezovsky flatly denies these accusations.