News - Armenia grants refugee status to Belarus national

Armenia has granted refugee status to Belarusian citizen Yaroslav Novikov, who had been detained at the request by the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus, his lawyer Arayik Papikyan said, reported the RFE/RL Belarusian service. "Yaroslav just received refugee status, he will be released a little later," Papikyan informed. Belarusian national Yaroslav Novikov was detained crossing the Armenian-Georgian border on February 2. In the summer of 2023, a criminal case was opened against him in Belarus for avoiding military service. And last September, an international search was declared for this man. The Belarusian man had planned to cross from Georgia to Bulgaria, but he did not get a visa. He was advised to get the necessary visa in his homeland, but Novikov did not go there because of the risk of arrest. Instead, he went to neighboring Armenia to get a visa, where he was apprehended. On February 7, it was announced that Yaroslav Novikov requested political asylum and refugee status from Armenia because he fears criminal prosecution if he is extradited to Belarus. In 2022-2023 Armenian authorities arrested several citizens of Belarus. All these arrests took place on the Armenian-Georgian border, when the Belarusians tried to "zero" the period of their stay in Georgia by temporarily coming to Armenia.