An FBI most wanted Capitol rioter has fled to the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus, known as Europe’s last dictatorship, where he is being hailed as an American fleeing “political persecution.”
Evan Neumann, the alleged rioter, was charged in July on six criminal charges. After the charges were filed, Neumann sold his Bay Area house for $1.3 million and fled the country. The FBI classifies Neumann as a “defendant at large.”
In an interview titled “Goodbye, America,” released on Sunday, Neumann declared: “‘I do not believe that I have committed any crime. One of the charges was very offensive. It is alleged that I hit a police officer. There is no reason for this. This is terrible… This is political persecution. And this is a level with which I cannot do anything.”
The interview aired on a Belarus television station, with the channel presenter introducing Neumann as “the same type of simple American whose shops were burned by Black Lives Matter activists.”
The reporter continued: “However, something makes him flee from the country of fabulous freedoms and opportunities, as we used to believe. [Neumann] sought justice and asked uncomfortable questions following the 2020 presidential election ‘but lost almost everything and is being persecuted by the U.S. government.”
