American lawyer detained in Minsk on the day of Borodin’s Arrival
- 18.03.2008, 10:25
A lawyer, a money laundering combat expert, a US citizen of Russian origin Emanuel Zeltser was detained in Minsk on March 12. The press learnt about that on March 17.
“My brother has never been in Belarus. The first step from the plane’s ramp, and he is detained,” told distressed Mark Zeltser to BelaPAN. As said by him, on March 15 Belarusian law-enforcing agencies confirmed to the US Embassy in Minsk the fact of his detention, but didn’t gave details about the place of detention. It was not immediately clear why the man was arrested. At the moment of conversation Mark Zeltser didn’t know whether the US consul was successful in seeking a meeting with his brother.
Zeltser’s family sent a list of medicines to Belarusian embassy in Washington. Mr. Zeltser needs to take medications constantly. He suffers from a number of serious medical conditions and might not survive the detention without immediate medical attention. The brother said that the Belarusian Embassy sent a reply fax message informing that all necessary medications had been given to Emanuel Zeltser.
Mr. Zeltser was grabbed when he was exiting a plane from London where he had a meeting with clients who run assets in Belarus. He was issued a Belarusian visa there. He decided to visit the country on his way back to New York City. Together with his secretary Vladlena Funk, who has a Russian citizenship and the US permanent resident card, he went to Belarus on March 12.
They both were detained in Minsk right near the plane. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the secretary still.
“He had never been in Belarus. If he had violated the Belarusian law, he is to answer for that. But what are the charges against him, what are the grounds for his detention? Why haven’t we been able to contact him yet? Moreover, a right for a lawyer and due medical help should be granted,” Mark Zeltser insists.
The brother of the detained is in touch with the situation in the Belarusian-US relations. As said by him, the policy shouldn’t interfere with people’s lives. Mark is convinced that Emanuel Zeltser had never been engaged in Belarus or affairs personally related to the president of the country. “I would like to come to him, but I am afraid I do not have grounds for getting a visa,” he said. “Our mother is 91. She’ll die if she learns what has happened…”
The US embassy in Minsk would not comment on the report, citing the protection of private information.
The KGB Centre of Information and Public Relations, the State Committee of Frontier Troops of Belarus and the main directorate of the Internal Affairs have informed that they know nothing about the detention of the US citizen in the capital of Belarus.
Oxana Adler, a board member of the American Russian Law Institute (New York, US) headed by Emanuel Zeltser, told BelaPAN about several versions of her colleague’s arrest. According to her knowledge, the Belarusian side charges him with links with organized crime.
Ms. Adler said that “the arrest and the whole saga appear to be orchestrated by Mr. Zeltser's opponents who used the dictatorial political climate in Belarus and strong anti-American and anti-Jewish sentiment in that country as well massive corruption in the local police to organize Mr. Zeltser's arrest and his virtual disappearance.”
She said that either Russian tycoons willing to grab the assets of a late client of the lawyer or Russian opponents of his human rights activities were behind the arrest.
Mr. Zeltser emigrated from the Soviet Union in the mid 1970s. An expert in regulations governing money laundering and organized crimes in Russia and the former Soviet states, he currently heads the American Russian Law Institute. In 1999, Mr. Zeltser testified before the US House Committee on Banking and Financial Services at a hearing of a case into organized crime and money laundering in Russia, according to Ms. Adler.
Mr. Zeltser appeared in the case of reported money laundering case via Bank of New York. For some time he represented interests of the former Head of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation Pavel Borodin. Presently he is the State Secretary of the “union” of Russia and Belarus. By the way, Pavel Borodin visited Minsk yesterday.
The lawyer and human rights watchdog appeared as an expert in such mass media as как Fox News, CNN, Voice of America, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, CBC (Canada) and others. He commented facts of international terrorism, issues of money laundering and organized crime.