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District judge refuses to release Baumgertner

A district judge in Minsk on Friday rejected an application by Vladislav Baumgertner's lawyers to release the director general of Russian potash maker Uralkali pending the investigation.

"The reason was explained to us, but we cannot speak about it," one of the lawyers, Dzmitry Harachka, told BelaPAN.

He said that the ruling by Judge Natallya Pykina of the Partyzanski District Court would be appealed to the Minsk City Court on Monday.

Mr. Baumgertner was arrested on August 26 as he was about to fly out of Minsk after a meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich.

Pavel Travulka, spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Belarus, told BelaPAN after the arrest that Mr. Baumgertner, who chairs the supervisory board of Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), was suspected of power abuse and so were Oleg Petrov, a member of the BPC's supervisory board; Konstantin Solodovnikov, first deputy director general; Igor Yevstratov, deputy director general; Dmitry Samoilov, head of the freight department, and "other people."

A few days later, the Belarusian authorities instituted criminal proceedings against Russian billionaire and Uralkali's top shareholder Suleiman Kerimov.

The case is linked to Uralkali's July 30 decision to de facto quit BPC, its joint trader with Belarusian potash giant Belaruskali. Minsk claims that the collapse of the Belarusian-Russian potash sales cartel has caused Belarus severe economic damage.