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US lawyer imprisoned in Belarus files complaint to UN Human Rights Committee

US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser imprisoned in Belarus' Mahilyow has filed an urgent complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, BelaPAN said.

In the complaint, Mr. Zeltser says that the Belarusian government is "violating his civil and political rights during his detention in Belarus as a political prisoner."

He is seeking his immediate release. The 21-page complaint summarizes the "harsh and abusive treatment" of Mr. Zeltser in custody in Belarus.

The lawyer says in the complaint that he never intended to visit Belarus and his last memory before he awoke in Belarus was having a cup of coffee in London.

Since the arrival, he says, he has been subject to physical beatings, deprived of his prescriptions, suffered severe pain and mental deterioration, and denied proper medical treatment.

Mr. Zeltser filed the complaint through his Washington-based counsel, Joseph L. Brand (Patton Boggs).

The US Department of State and several leading members of the US House of Representatives have called for the release of Mr. Zeltser on humanitarian grounds.

On August 11, Mr. Zeltser was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of "attempted industrial espionage" and the use of fake documents. His secretary, Russian national Vladlena Funk, was sentenced to one year in prison on the same charges. The Minsk City Court held the trial behind closed doors and no details of the case were disclosed to the public.

The pair were arrested upon their arrival in Minsk in March and put into the KGB detention center.