Zeltser’s secretary won’t be released ahead of time

• 10.02.2009, 14:50

Russian native Vladlena Bruskova (Funk) has been denied early parole by Homel court.

Vladlena Bruskova was a secretary of US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser. On March 12, 2008 the both were arrested in Minsk airport, and in a few months they were condemn for alleged attempt of commercial espionage against Belarus. Vladlena Bruskova was sentenced to a year of imprisonment. He is serving the sentence in Homel women colony.

“Documents on Bruskova’s conditional early relief were prepared in Homel women colony and forwarded to the court. But the court denied release, referring to the fact that necessary documents hadn’t been sent from Russia. We talked to policemen in Velikiy Novgorod, where Vladlena Bruskova is registered, but they say that nobody addressed them from Belarus asking for documents. It looks as if they didn’t want to release my client a month earlier, thinking not much is left,” Radio Svaboda was told by lawyer Zmitser Harachka.

As we have informed, E. Zeltser and V. Funk arrived to Minsk in connection with the case of a dispute over the estate of businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, died in London. Zeltser was invited as a lawyer of US citizen Joseph Kay, a distant relative of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili. As said by Zeltser’s family, Boris Berezovsky who allegedly provoked Zeltser’s arrest, lays claims for the assets too. The Russian exiled oligarch denies his implication in the case. E. Zeltser serves the sentence in the correctional colony No. 15 in Mahilyou. He had been sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment.