June 15, Pozirk. Armenian authorities have released Belarusian civil society activist Viktar Klimus who was detained at Yerevan’s airport earlier today after Armenian border guards found him on an international wanted list.
“Alive, well and free. Thanks to all who worried and supported,” Klimus said on Facebook.
He is likely to stay in Armenia until he obtains all permissions from security agencies to leave the country.
The man arrived in Armenia from Poland “on a working visit,” the Viasna Human Rights Center reported on June 15.
Armenia’s Helsinki Civil Assembly provided a lawyer to assist the Belarusian activist.
According to Leanid Marozaŭ, an aide to Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja who was also involved in the effort to secure the release of Klimus, Armenia had previously detained at least seven Belarusian opposition activists because of shared database systems with Belarus and Russia.
The leader of Hruntoŭnia, a now-defunct pro-Belarusian cultural center in Brest, Viktar Klimus, fled Belarus in early 2021 following a police search of his home. Klimus said that he was wanted in connection with the so-called round dance protest, a peaceful September 13, 2020 protest in Brest where people danced and sang at a crossroads. Authorities in Belarus sentenced more than a hundred people to prison for that dance.
Earlier this year, Alen Simonyan, the Armenian parliamentary speaker, said that no one would be detained or deported to any country for political reasons.
Armenia has been pursuing closer ties with the European Union under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 following mass protests against the country’s former leadership.
