WASHINGTON — An American man who fled the U.S. after being charged with assaulting cops through the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol was granted refugee status in Belarus, in accordance with a Belarusian state-owned news company.
The Belarusian Telegraph Agency reported that the person, Evan Neumann, was notified Tuesday that nation’s Interior Ministry granted him refugee status. An immigration official, Yuri Brazinsky, stated Neumann illegally crossed into Belarus in August 2021 from Ukraine.
“He explained that he noticed surveillance there, began to fear for his life and health. He took with him a map, a backpack with things and crossed the state border in the area of responsibility of the Pinsk border guard, where he was immediately detained,” Brazinsky advised the state news company.
Neumann stated in an interview with the news company, “I feel safe in Belarus. Calm. I like the country. I have mixed feelings today. I am glad because Belarus has taken care of me. I am upset because I found myself in such a situation that there were problems in my native country.”
Neumann didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon LinkedIn.
Neumann was needed on six legal expenses, in accordance with a submitting with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in March 2021. The submitting alleged he punched cops and used a steel barricade on the Capitol to ram into them through the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
His LinkedIn profile stated he “participated in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution” in 2004 and 2005, when mass protests erupted because of claims fraud in a presidential election, according to the U.S. court filing.
Neumann, who according to the court filing is from Mill Valley, California, said in an interview with a Belarusian state-run TV news channel in November that he traveled to Italy in March 2021 and then made his way to Ukraine. After spending several months there, he said, Ukrainian security officials started to follow him, prompting him to cross the border into Belarus, where he was detained by border guards.
“It’s terrible. It is a political persecution, not a criminal investigation, but political persecution,” Neumann stated of the costs within the TV interview. “I do not consider myself having inflicted any harm,” he stated. “One of the charges was particularly insulting, namely that I hit a police officer. This has no grounds at all.”
