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US lawyer Zeltser brings fresh lawsuit against Belnaftakhim over his arrest in 2008

US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser, who spent 16 months in custody in Belarus several years ago, and his secretary Vladlena Funk have brought a fresh lawsuit against Belarusian state petrochemical conglomerate Belnaftakhim, which they accuse of conspiring with the Committee for State Security (KGB) to kidnap them, BelaPAN said.

A 26-page, $140 million personal injury lawsuit has landed in the Brooklyn Federal Court, according to media reports.

In the court papers, Mr. Zeltser and Ms. Funk claim that they were drugged and whisked off to Belarus on a Russian oligarch's plane.

Mr. Zeltser writes that the abduction was designed "to force the hand of the United States government to lift economic sanctions imposed against (Belnaftakhim)," according to the complaint.

Belnaftakhim is represented in the case by a top Manhattan law firm, White & Case.

Mr. Zeltser and Ms. Funk were arrested in March 2008. Authorities in Belarus said that they had been apprehended upon their arrival in Minsk.

In August 2008, Mr. Zeltser was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of "attempted industrial espionage" and the use of fake documents. His secretary 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 two maintained their innocence.

Mr. Zeltser then insisted that his arrest was orchestrated by self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and “a high-ranking Belarusian official.” According to him, his secretary and he were accused of forging the will of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a Georgian billionaire who died in London in February 2008 at the age of 52, with the widow and Mr. Berezovsky pressing for the charges.

Ms. Funk spent 12 months in custody. Mr. Zeltser was released on June 30, 2009 after being pardoned by Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The pair filed a similar suit against Belnaftakhim with the Kings County Supreme Court in New York City in July 2012.