Belarusian political emigrant Lev Mikheyev, detained by Armenian police following his forced expulsion from Georgia, has been released, the publication Pozirk reports, citing human rights defender Roman Kislyak.
“He conveyed that he is in good spirits, in a good mood, and grateful to everyone for their support,” Kislyak said.
According to Pozirk, Mikheyev had been seeking political asylum in Georgia for five years. In Armenia, he was detained at the request of the Belarusian authorities. Both countries are connected to the search database of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). “Yerevan, which has set a course toward rapprochement with the European Union, does not extradite foreign nationals persecuted on political grounds,” the outlet writes.
Earlier, Mikheyev himself described the circumstances surrounding his expulsion from Georgia. Specifically, according to the activist, officials at the Migration Department labeled him an “illegal immigrant” despite him holding a valid ID card. Mikheyev claims he was offered two options: to be “thrown out of Georgia in handcuffs” or to leave voluntarily, choosing the destination himself, even if it meant returning to Belarus.
Pozirk noted that there was no court hearing regarding the deportation, and the activist himself was “forced to sign many papers” in Georgian, the meaning of which he did not understand.
Later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia issued a statement asserting that the information disseminated by the media was “distorted.”
