US protester who escaped to Europe seeks asylum in Belarus
A US protester who has escaped the United States is reportedly seeking asylum in Belarus in the wake of the country’s trial of the Capitol rioters.
Evan Neumann, 48, who is wanted by the FBI, appeared in a Belarusian TV channel interview, following his escape to Europe in the wake of the protest.
Neumann initially travelled to Switzerland and from there to Italy before settling in Ukraine for six months. He was later detained by Belarusian border guards for illegally crossing into the country.
He made the decision on the advice of his lawyer after six charges were filed against him over his participation in the Jan. 6 storming of the US Congress by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The Californian dismissed the charges in the interview with the Belarus-1 television network as "political persecution."
Tim O’Connor, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Belarus, which is based in Vilnius, Lithuania, said that the embassy has “reporting about Mr. Neumann.”
“Due to US privacy laws, we are limited in what we can say about individual US citizens… The United States is a country where the rule of law is respected and where government is transparent and accountable for its actions,” O’Connor claimed in a statement, cited by the Washington Post. “Every citizen can count on an impartial and objective court system.”
Since Jan. 6, Democrats have been arguing that the protest was an insurrection based on disinformation spread by the former president, who alleges that he is the true victor of the 2020 presidential election and not President Joe Biden.
Following the Jan. 6 raid into US Capitol, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko questioned the so-called democracy in the United States, suggesting that the situation in the landlocked Eastern European country is unlike that of the US.
“In our country, protesters and other dissatisfied people don’t storm government agencies and capitols,” said the Republic of Belarus leader. “We have a completely normal situation from the perspective of the development of democratic processes.”
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