Fugitive MAGA rioter pleads for asylum on Belarus State TV: 'I’m not strong enough to withstand torture'
November 11, 2021
MAGA rioter Evan Neumann has become "a convenient pawn" for Russian President Vladimir Putin since fleeing from California to Belarus to avoid prosecution for repeatedly assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Neumann appeared on state television in Belarus on Thursday, during a special called "Goodbye, America," where he bemoaned "political repressions" in the U.S. and "claimed that the criminal charges against him are totally unfounded," the Daily Beast reports.
"He accused the federal government of staging an elaborate set-up on Jan. 6 and claimed that the doors of the Capitol 'were opened from the inside and we were invited to come in,'" the site reports, adding that Neumann is seeking political asylum in Belarus because he says the U.S. is no longer a country of law and order.
Neumann claimed in the interview that he would "face certain torture" if he returns to the U.S. "I'm not strong enough to withstand torture," he said.
"Ironically, Neumann's flagrant resistance to lawful authority led him to seek asylum in authoritarian Belarus—often described as 'Europe's last dictatorship,'" the Daily Beast notes, adding that for Belarusian and Russian state TV, Neumann has become "a convenient pawn for besmirching the U.S. government."
"Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, repeatedly used the Capitol insurrection to take jabs at the U.S.'s election integrity and to claim that the rioters are facing 'political repressions,' in an attempt to deflect from domestic issues plaguing Russia and Belarus under their authoritarian leadership," the site reports. "Russian state TV is already using Neumann's saga as a basis to claim that the Kremlin is more lenient towards the protesters than the U.S. government."
Neumann was charged in July on six counts, including assaulting officers and violent entry, after he was identified in video recorded during the riot, but he had already sold his Mill Valley home for $1.3 million and fled to Ukraine before going to Belarus.
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