A Belarusian father and son have managed to sneak past around-the-clock secret-service surveillance and flee their country after spending almost two years at the Swedish Embassy in Minsk, where they were living to avoid arrest after taking part in unsanctioned rallies protesting the official results of the August 2020 presidential election that gave victory to authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Vital and Uladzislau Kuznechyk told the Zerkalo news website on June 9 that they escaped by setting up a medical examination in a nearby town, which an embassy car drove them to on June 1. From there, they took a combination of public transit modes to reach a forest near the Latvian border, climbed a fence, and ran to a village where they surrendered to border guards.
"We assumed that we would not have much time to leave. To be honest, we were mentally prepared for the fact that they [Belarusian security officials] would seize us," said Uladzislau, the 29-year-old son, on June 8 after appearing at a meeting with the exiled Belarusian opposition leader, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was in the Latvian capital to push for the West to keep up pressure on Lukashenka.
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Belarusians In Long-Term Limbo At Swedish Embassy Say Stockholm 'Not Helping'
Vital Kuznechyk, 47, said that when the two showed their passports and said they were seeking political asylum, the attitude of the Latvian border guards "was amazing."
The wild journey of the two started when they took part in an anti-Lukashenka rally in their native city of Vitsebsk in September 2020.
Police knocked Vital down, beat him, and tried to arrest him. Uladzislau managed to intervene, and the two escaped detention.
Days later, as police in Vitsebsk were searching for them, the Kuznechyks traveled to Minsk where they visited the Swedish Embassy and asked for protection. Embassy officials refused to assist them, so they jumped over the fence onto the embassy grounds, where they were given sanctuary on September 11, 2020.
“In principle, they didn’t really want us to be there,” Uladzislau said.
"They admitted that we can legally stay on the territory of the embassy. We could not be extradited to the authorities of Belarus, while the Swedish authorities did not want to give us any status. They explained that if they do this, there will be a precedent. And then all the Swedish embassies in the world will see people jump over their fences."
SEE ALSO: Olympic Committee Chief Warns Federations Not To Give In To Governments On Athlete BansWhile at the embassy, they learned that they had been charged in absentia with attacking law enforcement officers. If handed over to the authorities and convicted of the charge, they would have faced up to six years in prison.
Thousands of Belarusians have been arrested and much of the opposition leadership has been jailed or forced into exile as Lukashenka tightened his grip on the country to quell the mass protests that followed the election, which the opposition maintain was rigged.
Several protesters have been killed and there have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown, which has also seen several nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets shut down.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the crackdown.