Evan Neumann is under federal indictment in the U.S. for more than a dozen charges related to last year’s Capitol insurrection. But Belarus, a Russian ally and neighbor to Ukraine, has granted him asylum, saying he is under its protection indefinitely.
“I am very grateful, and it is bittersweet,” like eating cranberries, Neumann said in a video posted by state media Belta. “So, very happy and very sad at the same time.”
Neumann is currently wanted by the FBI on multiple charges of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including using a metal barricade as a battering ram. But he fled the U.S. one month after the insurrection, traveling to Ukraine before winding up in Belarus. And now Belarus, which is aiding Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, has granted Neumann refugee status.
He received his new Belarusian identification document from the department of citizenship and migration office in Brest, with reporters looking on. Belarus claims that the U.S. charges against Neumann are politically motivated. He was granted refugee status almost exactly one year after the first criminal complaint was filed against him last March.
Belarusian officials say that when Neumann was in Ukraine, he became suspicious that he was under surveillance. Taking only a map, a rucksack and some belongings, they said, he crossed the border into Belarus in August of 2021, whereupon he was detained by military personnel. After arriving, he immediately asked for protection.
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