Supreme Court of Belarus refused to give copy of judgement to Zeltser and Funk
- 11.03.2009, 15:25
Neither the US citizen Emanuel Zeltser nor his secretary Vladlena Funk kept in the Belarusian prison, have been given the copy of judgement.
As informed to BelaPAN, the lawyer of Zeltser and Funk, Zmitser Harachka, on March 11 he received an answer to his complaint to the Supreme Court of Belarus.
He was informed that “the copy of judgement was denied reasonably”. However, as the lawyer explained, according to Article 367 of the Code of Criminal Procedure issuing of a copy of judgement is to take place within 5 days after its announcement. There are no exceptions to that.
It should be noted that at the press-conference on February 11 the chairman of the Supreme Court Valyantsin Sukala stated that E. Zeltser received a copy of judgement.
“The copy of judgement has been given to Zeltser into his hands. The information that the court hadn’t given it, is untrue,” he stated.
The US citizen Emanuel Zeltser and his secretary Vladlena Funk (Bruskova) were detained on March 12, 2008 and charged w with gathering commercial information and using fake documents. Zeltser was sentenced to 3 years in a minimum security penal colony, and Vladlena Funk – to 1 year of imprisonment. They pleaded not guilty.
On October 31 the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the verdict. All court trials were held behind the closed doors.
The US many times called upon the Belarusian authorities to release E. Zeltser on humanitarian grounds, and his health has seriously deteriorated behind the bars. The defence and family of E. Zeltser called the verdict to him a death sentence, because of his poor health. They believe that the prisoner can not survive until the end of the prison term.
Zeltser’s family blame with his arrest Badri Patarkatsishvili’s companion, Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky. According to them, he visited Minsk to take part in the trial and witness, and visited Zeltser in the KGB remand prison. Berezovsky and official Belarusian structures do not confirm and do not refute these reports.
Tomorrow Zeltser’s secretary Vladlena Funk is to be released as her term of completion of sentence expires.