The third month of confinement of the American lawyer Emmanuil Seltzer in the pre-trial prison of Byelorussian KGB ended up in the way characteristic of messed up accusations. Now another criminal case has been started against him charging him with keeping and smuggling of drugs. The first accusation about the use of forged documents does not seem to be going to be passed for trial. Though, no one can say for sure as the case has been announced to be a state secret.     

However, it became known quickly that the lawyer Seltzer has no relation to any secrets of the Byelorussian state and so the interest to him by Byelorussian KGB appears to be odd.

The lawyer Emmanuil Seltzer, who represents the interests of Josef Kay, the stepbrother of Badri Patarkatsishvili, arrived in Minsk on 12 March on the plane belonging to Boris Berezovsky. He and his secretary Vladlena Funk, a Russian citizen, were arrested by the officers of Byelorussian security service and were placed in the KGB pre-trial prison, which for some reason is called “Americana” by local people. Well, at least now the place justifies its nickname. 

The documents because of which Mr. Zeltser got arrested are a power of attorney allegedly given by Badri Patarkatsishvili to his stepbrother and effective even after his death, also the will and a paper saying that Josef Kay is appointed to be a disponent of the last will and testament. The documents are dated 14 November last year. The late oligarch’s relatives learnt about the power of attorney three days after his death when Josef Kay requested for information about all the property of Badri and presented the documents above, with which Emmanuil Seltzer arrived in Minsk.   

And then a bad detective story began. 3 March the lawyer of Boris Berezovsky Michel Duncan sent a letter to the name of the Byelorussian interior ministry saying that the power of attorney possessed by Josef Kay is dubious and may be a forge. It turned out that after Patarkatsishvili’s death Michel Duncan began to represent also interests of his widow and daughters. Boris Berezovsky had recommended her to them. A few days later same Boris Berezovsky insisted that Emmanuil Seltzer fly to Minsk immediately and he even allowed him his private plane. And at the airport Emmanuil Seltzer was met and put cuffs on him.      

Along with that, in her letter to the Byelorussian law enforcers Michel Duncan stated that Kay, Seltzer and their accomplices want to get unlawful possession of Patarkatsishili’s property that he might had had in the country. That is, no one knows exactly if Badri had anything in Byelorussia. Anyway, Mark Seltzer, the brother of Emmanuil Seltzer, affirms that Boris Berezovsky, the principal to Michel Duncan, met with the Kay’s lawyer and insisted on his trip to Minsk saying that the late Badri had an oil processing plant in Byelorussia and it was necessary to claim rights for that enterprise before Lukashenko sold it out. The kindly facilitated private plane added importance to the trip for the lawyer and so he rushed to Minsk the next day.       

Well, the matter is that there are only two oil processing plants in Byelorussia: Mozyrsky and Novopolozky ones. The latter is possessed by the state and the former is possessed by the state and by Russian Gazpromneft Company. 

Just one more detail. Is it really possible that a letter by a certain British (French, American, Hungarian – does not matter) female lawyer make the law enforcement bodies send immediately security service officers to make an arrest? That’s absolutely impossible. It could be true if it had been Interpol to hunt after the international culprits. But just a lawyer with some documents? A participant of scandalous sharing out of inheritance? That’s nonsense. This well-worked-out scenario only proves that arrest of Seltzer is a result of personal agreements. And the arrest made by KGB officers and the criminal case, made a state secret – all that are signs of the agreement with only one possible person in Byelorussia. Other persons do not have such opportunities and freedom of action. And all that indicates that the second party in the personal agreements made is the man on whose plane Emmanuil Seltzer arrived in Minsk. 

The matter is not about possible property of Patarkatsishvili in Byelorussia – it is likely that he had nothing in the country. The task was to knock out the pretender for managing the inheritance, that’s Josef Kay. It would be too difficult to do in the West, even having big money. And in totalitarian Byelorussia under condition of having agreements with the top person it can be done easily.       

First days, Emmanuil Seltzer was refused to see the US consul Caroline Savage. She was able to see the arrested only two weeks after the detention. Seltzer informed her that he had been bashed severely first days and was not given necessary medications. And a few days ago the brother of Emmanuil Seltzer passed a tape of a phone conversation between Seltzer and Kay the next day after arrest made, on 13 March. There Seltzer asks Josef Kay to come promptly and to bring the documents. Josef Kay’s answer is “I won’t come. I was against your sudden trip to Minsk and you didn’t listen to me, you listened to Boris.”       

Anyway, a phone call from a Byelorussian KGB prison to abroad is something abnormal. The only logical explanation possible is that Seltzer was made to call. He was made to call and to ask his client to come. This is probably why he was beaten at first days in prison. And if his client had come, he would have found himself in a next cell.  

Two months after arrest of Emmanuil Seltzer the court proceedings took place in New York and in Tbilisi. The New York’s court considered the suit by Patarkatsishvili’s widow Inna Gudavadze against Josef Kay, while the court of Tbilisi examined the opposite suit. The former court forbade Josef Kay to manage the property and the latter court did same towards Inna Gudavadze. So there is a draw, as of today. The authenticity of the testament was not considered at all.  

So there is a usual celebrated family scandal about sharing out the inheritance. It’s celebrated because the inheritance is of too big size. None of the potential legatees knows the exact figures and the concrete objects. Anyway, all this family row must not be interesting for Byelorussian KGB. Strangely, right after it became clear that Mr. Seltzer is kept in the custody without any evidence of crime in the act, Byelorussian special services started another criminal case about drugs contraband. The matter is that codeine is part of the medicines – Hydrocodone and Butalbital – that were taken by Mr. Seltzer.    

Emmanuil Seltzer suffers from several chronic diseases, including diabetes. Such kind of patients needs to take medicines all the time, and during the three months of custody he only received insulin injections. It’s only now that it becomes clear that Mr. Seltzer’s medicines were kept in one of the KGB safes just in case. It was intended to play its role in case of failure of the first criminal case.  

Two days after the new criminal case was started, the doctor of Emmanuil Seltzer, Lev Paukmann sent a statement to the Byelorussian KGB. He wrote that he had never informed his patient of contents of the medications prescribed for his patient.

Well, it appears that it is just necessary to keep Emmanuil Seltzer in the prison as long as possible till the “personal agreements” change or the question of inheritance gets decided. Along with that, everyone forgot that besides Mr. Seltzer there is his secretary, a Russian citizen Vladlena Funk to be kept behind the bars. She does not have diabetes and she does not take any medicines containing codeine. Finally, she had no dubious warranties on her. Nevertheless, it’s been for three months that she is kept in the custody too. Just an accident? Or she has something to say aloud if she gets at large? Isn’t it safer to keep her in the pre-trial prison for the moment? They call it “tolerable loss”.      

Novaya Gazeta information

Emmanuil Seltzer, lawyer, pianist

Different Internet sources say about different dates of Mr. Seltzer’s birth date which is believed to be 1953 or 1954. There is information that he probably was born in Siberia and later moved to Moldavia. However, other sources say he was born in Kishinev (the capital of Moldavia).  

Mr. Seltzer himself reports he studied in the Kishinev State University, while some media say he studied at the Moldavian State Institute of Arts (piano class).  

Anyway, in the middle of the 1970’s Mr. Seltzer immigrated to the USA where he studied the music and had some business. Then a scandal happened: the management of the American Urgy clinics accused him of fraudulent seizure and in 1997 the court obliged Mr. Seltzer to pay a compensation of $ 2,000,000.  

Later Mr. Seltzer got involved in the case related to the assumed money laundering through American largest Bank of New York. And in 2007 there was a scandal about lawsuit to Nord Service, Inc: it turned at the court proceedings that all the documents submitted by the lawyer Seltzer were forged and the witnesses were dubious (see Novaya Gazeta #22 of 2008, article by Yulia Latynina).