Belarus: Activist fights to stop extradition from Serbia

Yet again, a court in the Serbian capital Belgrade will determine Andrey Gnyot's fate — it is his last hope. Judges in Gnyot's case have been weighing his appeal of a prior Serbian ruling that would see the Belarus activist extradited to Minsk. He has spent most of the last 10 months in a Serbian jail.

According to court documents, Belarus authorities want Gnyot to answer accusations of tax evasion. But Gnyot's lawyers say he is being persecuted because of his past political activities against dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Gnyot joined numerous protests calling out Lukashenko for election fraud in the summer of 2020.

Detained in Serbia on an INTERPOL warrant  

Andrey Gnyot is a director, journalist and activist, he makes TV ads and music videos. He has lived in Thailand since fleeing Belarus. He was arrested on October 30, 2023, when he arrived in Belgrade from Bangkok.

"That was already my second trip, I was in Serbia to film for a short time in August. I was arrested at passport control, then I was taken to the police and informed that I was wanted on an INTERPOL warrant — at the request of Belarus' INTERPOL office," Gnyot told DW. 

It was then that he discovered authorities in Belarus had charged him with having withheld roughly €300,000 ($367,000) in taxes. Gnyot says the charges against him are politically motivated. After his arrest, Gnyot announced that he had been one of the founders of the Belarus Free Association of Athletes SOS-BY, an initiative that was created after the country's controversial 2020 presidential election.

The group was able to influence a decision to strip Belarus of hosting the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championships, it was also instrumental in cutting funds to Belarus' National Olympic Committee. In 2022, Belarus authorities declared SOS-BY an "extremist organization."

Jail, house arrest and electronic ankle bracelet

Andrey Gnyot was immediately taken to Belgrade's main prison after his arrest. After about a month-and-a-half of detention, Serbian authorities decided Gnyot could be extradited to Belarus. "In mid-December 2023, I received a piece of paper upon which was written that Serbia considered my extradition possible and saw no reason not to transfer me," he said. "Naturally, that came as a shock to me."

Yet in March 2024, an appeals court suspended the decision, citing procedural errors: The court found that not all aspects of the case had been clarified, noting, too, that Gnyot had not been given the opportunity to testify. The case went back to court for a retrial.

A new appeal and lots of nervous waiting

On June 6, 2024, Gnyot was released from prison and put under house arrest. Friends had rented him an apartment in Belgrade before the decision was finalized. "They gave me an electronic ankle bracelet. I am allowed to leave the apartment once a day… for exactly one hour."

Then the hearings began once again — and when they were concluded in June 2024, Serbia's Supreme Court ruled in favor of extradition. Gnyot and his legal team again filed an appeal. An appeals court has been considering that motion since August 27.

"If the appeals court doesn't rule in my favor the minister of justice will have to sign the extradition papers. Then Serbia will send me to my death," says Gnyot. "Violence, torture and the destruction of my physical and psychological health await me in Belarus. I have a tough fight ahead of me… to be able to leave this apartment and go home, and not be destroyed by a dictatorship." 

International support for Andrey Gnyot

The International Criminal Police Organization INTERPOL blocked access to Gnyot's personal data in February 2024. In July 2024, INTERPOL informed a European Union (EU) delegation in Serbia that there was no reason to put out an international arrest warrant for Gnyot.

Prior to court hearings in Belgrade, Marie Struthers, regional director of Amnesty International's (AI) Eastern Europe and Central Asia sections, said, "In light of ongoing human rights abuses in Belarus" and the clear threat posed to Andrey Gnyot, it is important that Serbian officials "immediately end the extradition process." No one who has participated in anti-government activities "should be handed over to Alexander Lukashenko's regime under any circumstances."

The Belgrade Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is pessimistic, noting that Serbia has repeatedly abused the rights of individuals when it comes to extradition.

"What previous practice has shown is that courts very often explicitly state in their decisions that they are not competent to decide whether a person is threatened with expulsion or torture in their country," as BCHR's Petar Vidosavljevic explained to DW. Judges say, "that it is either within the competence of the asylum office, or the asylum procedure, or it is within the competence of the Ministry of Justice, because the minister of justice can stop extradition if it is related to political crime."

Demonstrations in support of Andrey Gnyot have now been held in some 20 different countries. Hundreds of artists have also signed an open letter penned by the Belarus Independent Film Academy (BIFA); including Nobel Literature Laureate Svetlana Alexievich; the president of the European Film Academy, Juliette Binoche; directors Wim Wenders and Yorgos Lanthimos, stage director Kirill Serebrennikov; and actors Sandra Hüller and Margarethe von Trotta.

Sanja Kljajic in Belgrade contributed to this article which was originally published in Russian