A Belarusian citizen has filed a request for political asylum in Armenia, after she was detained by Armenian border control while crossing the border from Georgia.
Diana Moiseenka, who was detained at the request of the Belarusian authorities, was released after nine hours in detention. She was placed on a wanted list by Belarus in July 2023. She is accused of organising or participating in actions ‘that grossly violate public order’, a reference to her alleged involvement in the protests against Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka following the presidential elections in 2020, widely assessed to have been fraudulent.
Moiseenka told RFE/RL she was unaware of the criminal case against her. She said she had lived in Georgia for around a year, from where she previously successfully travelled to Turkey.
‘Naturally, I was shocked’, Moiseenka said, adding that she was treated respectfully at the Armenian police station and that police had told her that ‘everything [would] be fine’.
Moiseenka is the daughter of former political prisoner Andrei Ivanyushin, who was convicted of violence against a police officer in 2021 and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. After being released in June 2023, he was again detained in August 2023 and charged with organising or participating in actions that grossly violate public order for his alleged participation in the 2020 anti-government protests. He was sentenced to six months in prison and added to the ‘list of extremists’ in December 2023 following his release.
‘Allegedly, I am involved in my father’s case as well’, Moiseenka said. ‘There it appears that my father and I were in a conspiracy and participated in protests together.’
Moiseenka is currently prohibited from leaving Armenia. The General Prosecutor’s Office has not commented on her status, or how long she would be banned from leaving the country.
‘In theory, they cannot extradite me, but I am afraid that the security forces may come from Belarus and take me away. I don’t know how real it is. Therefore, I have already submitted a request for political asylum in Armenia’, Moiseenka said.
On Monday, the office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the President of Belarus in exile, announced that were continuing ‘to actively work’ with the Armenian Foreign Ministry on the case of Moiseenka and other Belarusians ‘persecuted by the Lukashenko regime for political reasons’.
They also stated that they had ‘received assurances’ from Yerevan that the Armenian authorities would not extradite Belarusians ‘subject to political persecution in their homeland’.
Moiseenka is the latest in a series of Belarusian citizens to be detained in Armenia on Belarus’ request; at least two of them are confirmed to have received asylum.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have continued to deteriorate as Armenia has pulled away from Russia.
Belarus and Armenia recalled their ambassadors in June and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan vowed that neither he nor any Armenian representative would visit Belarus as long as President Lukashenka remained in power, due to his support for Azerbaijan in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
In August, a group of protesters threw vegetables and eggs at the Belarusian Embassy in Armenia, calling on them to ‘get out of Armenia,’ in response to a statement by Lukashenka that no one needed Armenians ‘besides us.’
