American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser faces charges in Belarus for bringing 100 tablets into the country.
Photo:
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Patarkatsishvili’s Inheritance Takes a Pill
The investigative department of the Belarusian KGB has wrapped up one case against American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser, who is incriminated in “using a forged document,” that is, the purported will and executorship of Badri Patarkatsishvili. After Zeltser, his secretary Vladlena Funk and their lawyers have time to acquaint themselves with the materials of the case, it will go to court. In addition, the Belarusian KGB has accused of narcotics smuggling.
Zeltser and Funk arrived in Minsk on exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky’s private airplane on March 12 representing the interests of Patarkatsishvili’s stepbrother Joseph Kay to claim possession of a local oil refinery, but they were arrested as soon as they left the plane. According to Kay, they were warned by Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili’s widow Inna Gudavadze that they would attempt to embezzle the deceased Georgian businessman’s assets. A scanned copy of a will in which Patarkatsishvili gave control over all of his assets worldwide to Kay was found in the lawyer’s notebook computer.
After Zeltser and Funk were in KGB custody, drug smuggling and trafficking charges, punishable by up to eight years in prison, were pressed against Zeltser in connection with 100 tablets seized from him at the time of his detainment. Zeltser’s brother Mark told Kommersant that Zeltser suffers from a number of ailments, and the tablets were his medication. Mark Zeltser said that documents confirming that had been sent to the Belarusian prosecutor general’s office, the Belarusian KGB and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Zeltser’s doctor Leo Paukman confirmed that information, saying that the medicines contain codeine.
Kay linked the increased activity in the investigation with a recent Tbilisi court ruling prohibiting Gudavadze and Patarkatsishvili’s daughters from taking action to claim the deceased oligarch’s property. Gudavadze and Berezovsky are said to have met with a Belarusian investigator or with a group of investigators in London. A court in the Southern District of New York made a similar ruling this month in relation to Kay.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 29, 2008
|
|
|
