Belarusian authorities granted refugee status to Evan Neumann, a Capitol rioter charged with assaulting police officers in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a tweet posted by state-run news agency BelTA on Tuesday.
A photo published by BelTA shows Neumann holding what appears to be a passport at the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, according to the translation of the tweet.
“Today I have mixed feelings,” Neumann told BelTA, according to CNN. “I am glad Belarus took care of me. I am upset to find myself in a situation where I have problems in my own country.”
Those problems include a 14-count indictment on charges of assaulting officers and engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds, the U.S. Department of Justice said in December 2021. He’s accused of striking officers with a metal barricade and his fists, then using the barricade “as a battering ram” as he and other members of the pro-Trump mob rushed the Capitol.
Neumann fled the U.S. on Feb. 16, 2021, and was being sought on an arrest warrant, the DOJ said.
Neumann described his escape in an interview with Belarus 1 for a segment called “Goodbye America.” He said he first went to Italy, then moved to Ukraine but left after local security forces followed him. He said he made it to his next stop, Belarus, on Aug. 15, 2021.
In the same interview, Neumann contested his U.S. indictment.
“One of the charges was very offensive,” Neumann said. “It is alleged that I hit a police officer. There is no reason for this.”
Belarus — an authoritarian country with a poor human rights record — is being used by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces to stage attacks in Ukraine. Police used violence to break up 2020 protests following allegations of fraudulent elections that saw Putin supporter Alexander Lukashenko reelected to the presidency.
