U.S. Attorney Disappears into Hands of Belarussian KGB

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus - The status of Emanuel Zeltser, a U.S. citizen and attorney who was arrested last week after deboarding a plane in Belarus, remains unknown.

Emanual Zeltser was arrested by uniformed Belarus authorities March 12 after deboarding his plane.  Zeltser was traveling from England with his secretary and Russian national Vladlena Funk, who was also detained.  He was on his way from a London meeting to New York, and stopped in Belarus in connection with his clients' assets located in Belarus. Officials at Belarus's spy and police service - still known as the KGB - confirmed Zeltser's arrest but would not provide details.  Mark Zeltser, his brother, reports that the U.S. Embassy had received no information about the arrest and was unable to contact Zeltser. 

Zeltser emigrated from the Soviet Union during the 1970s.  He currently is acting head of the American Russian Law Institute, and has formerly testified before the U.S. House Committee on Banking and Financial Services at a hearing regarding organized crime, money laundering and fraud in Russia (1999).  His testimony contained information regarding extensive Russian organized crime links with dishonest U.S. bankers. In 1995, Zeltser sued Inkombank for misappropriating funds from depositors from the Bank of New York.  At that time he also alleged Inkombank had laundered billions of Russian aid money donated by the IMF and others. In 2001, Zeltzer acted as a defense lawyer for Pavel Borodin, former head of Russia's Presidential Property Management Department with close ties to Vladimir Putin, who was arrested in New York on money laundering charges.    

The American Russian Legal Institute has been credited for helping to draft legislation to tighten controls against money-laundering in the U.S. and Russia.

The Associated Press reports that Interfax cited Belorussian Interior Ministry sources as saying the arrest may have taken place at the request of Russian law enforcement authorities, but Interpol reported that there had not been any Russian-issued international arrest warrant for Zeltser.

Charter'97 reported that Vladlena Bluzkova, who was detained with Zeltser and Funk, was transferred to a KGB remand jail. 

In 1998 Zeltser claimed Russian mobsters attempted to kill him by tampering with the brakes of his automobile.  Oxana Adler, a board member of the American Russian Law Institute and colleague of Zeltser reported to BelaPAN 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."

For more information, please see:

Associated Press [As reported by the International Herald Tribune and MSNBC] - Status of US lawyer arrested in Belarus still unknown as his family worries for his health - 18 March 2008

Belorusskie Novosti - US lawyer arrested in Minsk - 17 March 2008

Charter'97 - Is arrested in Minsk American lawyer kept in KGB jail? - 18 March 2008

Independent Online - Anti-mob lawyer arrested in Belarus - 18 March 2008