BELARUS: Banned by Lithuania and extradited by Vietnam, V. Veremeychik may face execution
By Olga Karatch, director of Nash Dom/ Our House (Belarus)
HRWF (26.11.2024) – A few days ago, Vietnam extradited to Belarus a former officer of the Belarusian Kalinovsky Regiment fighting on the side of Ukraine. His name was Vasily Veremeychik who got the Ukrainian military medal “Ukraine Above All.”
Arrested on 13 November in Vietnam, he was deported on the next day to Minsk at the request of the Belarusian KGB.
Now, Veremeychik faces the risk of death penalty or a 20-year prison sentence for fighting on Ukraine’s side.
Banned in Lithuania
Last May, Lithuania labeled a “threat to national security” Vasily Veremeychik, a Belarusian citizen, who fought in Ukraine on the side of Kyiv. This designation then led to a ban on his entry into the European Union and the threat of deportation to Belarus. Fearing extradition to Belarus and arrest as a traitor, Veremeychik left the EU and moved to Vietnam, a country where his safety was far from guaranteed, as it appeared afterwards.
Veremeychik graduated from the military academy in Belarus and served in the Belarusian army under contract from 2010 to 2016. Afterwards, he found a job in IT and became later an opponent to President Lukashenko. In 2020, he protested against the results of the presidential elections and, according to the publication “Nasha Niva“, was detained on suspicion of torching cars. However, the prosecution found no evidence and released him after 10 days of detention. Facing the threat of other arrests, he left Belarus.
From the beginning of the war until autumn 2022, he fought with the Belarusian Kalinovsky Regiment after which he decided to join his family in Lithuania and ask for political asylum. By that time, his wife and their daughter were already in Vilnius, where the company she was working for had its main office. Veremeychik went to Lithuania on a Ukrainian visa and started a procedure for obtaining a residence permit for family reunification.
In the meantime, he went to Georgia for work and in May 2023, it is there that he learned about the decision of the Department of Migration to recognize him as a threat to national security.
After living in Georgia for some time, Vasily decided to try to get political asylum in Poland. In September 2024, he flew to Warsaw but when he arrived there, he was told that he would have to spend ‘some time’ in a temporary detention center for refugees to get asylum. He refused and tried to go back to Georgia. In the meantime, the country was preparing parliamentary elections and the campaign between pro-Russia and pro-EU candidates was raging. In such a context, Tbilisi decided not to accept Belarusians any more and Veremeychik opted for Vietnam where he thought he could find some assistance from some people. He was arrested and extradited 24 hours later.
Lithuania massively labels Belarusians “threats to national security”
Lithuania’s designation of “threats to national security” has affected a huge number of Belarusian seeking political asylum.
In the last two years, the Migration Department took 1,644 decisions regarding “the threat to national security” allegedly posed by citizens of Belarus. A temporary residence permit in Lithuania was refused in 562 cases and in 450 more cases the authorities even revoked temporary residence permits previously held by Belarusian citizens and still valid. When applying for a national Lithuanian visa, 279 Belarusian citizens received negative answers.
Many of them are peaceful protesters or conscientious objectors or fighters who oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine. These people may be deported to Belarus, where they risk torture and imprisonment.
In 2023, 910 citizens from Belarus were declared to pose a threat to national security in Lithuania. According to E. Gudzinskaite, the head of the Migration Department in Lithuania, the figure is much lower this year: “164 citizens of Belarus were denied residence permits in Lithuania, 202 residence permits were not extended, and 166 were canceled”.
Belarusians who fall under Lithuania’s “threat to national security” label often have no choice but to flee to dangerous non-EU countries. Many live in hiding and without legal status elsewhere, as Lithuania’s designation makes legalizing their presence in the EU very complicated, if not impossible.
The Department of National Security of Lithuania does not recognise its responsibility in the fact that Belarusan activists can end up in a Belarusan prison under torture and under the threat of death penalty.
It is to be feared that the pressure of the Lithuanian Department of National Security on Belarusan human rights defenders, who defend the right of Belarusians to asylum in Lithuania, will go on increasing.
More reading
224 Belarusians were recognized as a threat to national security in Lithuania this year (13 October 2024)
During the year, more than 2,000 cases were received due to threats posed by citizens of Russia and Belarus. Solutions (22 November 2023)
A few days ago, Vietnam extradited to Belarus a former officer of the Belarusian Kalinovsky
Photo: Vasily Veremeychik under arrest at the airport of Vilnius / Photo by Yu. Staciavicius / LRT