California man charged in Jan 6 US Capitol riot flees to Belarus
A California man charged with assaulting police within the Jan. 6 riot on the US Capitol and utilizing a steel barricade as a battering ram has fled the United States and is believed to have taken refuge in Belarus, federal prosecutors stated on Friday.
Evan Neumann, 49, was indicted on Friday on 14 prison counts stemming from the lethal Capitol siege by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, increasing on costs initially contained in a prison criticism filed towards Neumann in March.
Neumann, of Mill Valley, California, close to San Francisco, was seen in video footage donning a fuel masks whereas standing close to police in entrance of barricades arrange on the base of the West Front of the Capitol Building, prosecutors stated in an announcement.
According to paperwork filed within the case, Neumann later removes his fuel masks and shouts on the police, “I’m willing to die, are you?” earlier than he bodily assaults a number of officers and rushes into them utilizing a barricade as a battering ram.
Neumann, who has but to make a court docket look within the case, fled from the United States on Feb. 16 and “is currently believed to be in Belarus,” the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia stated in an announcement.
According to an account revealed by information outlet the Daily Beast, Neumann was featured final month in a Belarusian state tv particular titled “Goodbye, America,” recounting his journey to the previous Soviet republic and its capital, Minsk.
He stated on this system that he was searching for political asylum in Belarus as a result of the United States, in his opinion, is now not a rustic of regulation and order, the Daily Beast reported.
Neumann is one in all greater than 220 people charged with assaulting or impeding regulation enforcement in the course of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, which disrupted a joint session of Congress assembly to formally certify the November 2020 presidential election victory of Democrat Joe Biden over Trump, the Republican incumbent.Neumann is believed to be the one worldwide fugitive charged in reference to the Capitol riot.
The siege adopted a rally close to the White House earlier that day through which Trump exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol throughout a speech through which he repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him by way of widespread voting fraud.
Four individuals died the day of the riot, and one Capitol police officer died the subsequent day of accidents sustained whereas defending Congress. Hundreds of police have been injured in the course of the multi-hour melee and 4 officers have since taken their very own lives.
