California man charged in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot flees to Belarus
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[December 11, 2021]
By Mark Hosenball and Steve Gorman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California man
charged with assaulting police in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol
and using a metal barricade as a battering ram has fled the United
States and is believed to have taken refuge in Belarus, federal
prosecutors said on Friday.
Evan Neumann, 49, was indicted on Friday on 14 criminal counts stemming
from the deadly Capitol siege by supporters of then-President Donald
Trump, expanding on charges originally contained in a criminal complaint
filed against Neumann in March.
Neumann, of Mill Valley, California, near San Francisco, was seen in
video footage donning a gas mask while standing near police in front of
barricades set up at the base of the West Front of the Capitol Building,
prosecutors said in a statement.
According to documents filed in the case, Neumann later removes his gas
mask and shouts at the police, "I'm willing to die, are you?" before he
physically assaults several officers and rushes into them using a
barricade as a battering ram.
Neumann, who has yet to make a court appearance in the case, fled from
the United States on Feb. 16 and "is currently believed to be in
Belarus," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said
in a statement.
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According to an account published by news outlet the Daily Beast,
Neumann was featured last month in a Belarusian state television special
titled "Goodbye, America," recounting his journey to the former Soviet
republic and its capital, Minsk.
He said on the program that he was seeking political asylum in Belarus
because the United States, in his opinion, is no longer a country of law
and order, the Daily Beast reported.
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![](../images/121121pics/news_I45.jpg)
Police release tear gas into a crowd of pro-Trump protesters during
clashes at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S.
presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S.
Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
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Neumann is one of more than 220 individuals charged with assaulting
or impeding law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol,
which disrupted a joint session of Congress meeting to formally
certify the November 2020 presidential election victory of Democrat
Joe Biden over Trump, the Republican incumbent.
Neumann is believed to be the only international fugitive charged in
connection with the Capitol riot.
The siege followed a rally near the White House earlier that day in
which Trump exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol during a
speech in which he repeated false claims that the election was
stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.
Four people died the day of the riot, and one Capitol police officer
died the next day of injuries sustained while defending Congress.
Hundreds of police were injured during the multi-hour melee and four
officers have since taken their own lives.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing and additional
reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Rosalba
O'Brien)
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