The 36-year-old man, Vladimir Balandin, is wanted in Belarus on embezzlement charges denied by him. The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA), an Armenian human rights group, says that he is prosecuted for participating in 2020 antigovernment protests in Minsk sparked by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection which the West regards as fraudulent.
Armenian prosecutors formally agreed to extradite Balandin on May 31, saying that Belarusian authorities have assured them that they will respect the suspect’s rights. Armenian courts refused to overturn that decision, leading the arrested man to apply for asylum in the country. The Armenian Interior Ministry’s Migration Service granted the request on Tuesday, according to the HCA.
“Balandin is no longer at risk of extradition as he has the status of a refugee in Armenia,” the Vanadzor-based group said in a statement.
Belarus’s Prosecutor-General Andrei Shved visited Yerevan and met with his Armenian counterpart Anna Vardapetian early this month. They reportedly discussed mutual extradition of fugitive suspects and convicts.
The authorities in Yerevan had earlier refused to extradite at least two other Belarusians, who were charged at home with draft evasion. The HCA says that they too participated in the 2020 demonstrations in support of Lukashenko’s main election challenger, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Balandin was granted asylum amid heightened tensions between Armenia and Belarus. Yerevan recalled the Armenian ambassador in Minsk for consultations in June after Lukashenko made fresh pro-Azerbaijani statements during a visit to Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declared that he and other Armenian officials will not visit Belarus as long as Lukashenko remains in power.
The Belarusian strongman, who has been in power since 1994, mocked Armenia and denounced its political leadership for seeking closer ties with the West in an August interview with Russian state television.