Belarusian citizen detained in Georgia transferred to Armenia

Belarusian citizen Lev Mikheev, who was detained in Georgia on September 25, was taken to the Armenian border and subsequently detained on the Armenian side, according to the publication Pozir.

Mikheev said he had gone to the Migration Department in the village of Martkopi to renew his temporary identity document. He was later taken to Tbilisi by department officials, who told him he was in Georgia illegally.

According to Mikheev, Georgian officials gave him the choice of being forcibly removed from the country or selecting another country to which he would be sent. He said he refused to return to Belarus because he had been awaiting asylum in Georgia since 2021, citing persecution in his home country. He ultimately chose Armenia.

Mikheev claimed that no court hearing was held regarding his deportation and that Georgian authorities forced him to sign documents written in Georgian that he did not understand. He was then taken to the Armenian border.

On the Armenian side, Mikheev was detained because his name appears in the CIS-wide intergovernmental wanted persons database at the request of the Belarusian authorities.

By Sabina Mammadli