MEPs call on ICC to issue arrest warrant for Lukashenko

This is stated on the European Parliament's website.

The European Parliament notes that Belarus is responsible for the damage caused to Ukraine, including through the role of the Lukashenko regime in the illegal transfer of children.

MEPs call for all necessary steps to be taken at the international level to ensure the prosecution of Belarusian political and military leaders responsible for crimes against humanity and genocide.

"With the International Criminal Court (ICC) already having issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, MEPs call on the ICC to consider a similar arrest warrant for Aleksandr Lukashenko. The Council should also expand the list of Belarusian and Russian individuals sanctioned by the EU, including those involved in forced deportations of Ukrainian children," the document says. 

In addition, the Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a new report on EU relations with Belarus with 49 votes in favor and 3 against, with two abstentions. In the text, MEPs condemned the Lukashenko regime's repression and systematic human rights violations against its own people.

It is noted that about 1,500 political prisoners, including lawyers, trade unionists, journalists and human rights activists, are behind bars in Belarus. MEPs noted that more than 300,000 Belarusians have left the country due to repression by the authorities.

The European Parliament has expressed concern over Belarus' political, economic, military, and cultural subordination to Moscow, making it a "de facto satellite state."

MEPs expressed solidarity with those Belarusians who are defending their national identity and language. They also call on the Belarusian regime to stop discrimination and violence against all minorities and condemn the authorities for attacks on the country's ethnic Lithuanian and Polish communities.

The European Parliament called on the EU to provide more economic support to Belarusian democratic forces, including opposition political parties and activists, and expressed support for opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

MEPs are also calling on the International Olympic Committee and other international sports federations to prevent athletes from Belarus and the Russian Federation from participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics or any other international sporting event.

• On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. The EU supported this decision.

• Representatives of various states and international organizations reacted to the ICC's decision. They were later joined by representatives of the United Kingdom and Canada, who unequivocally supported the court's position.

• US President Joe Biden told reporters that the ICC's arrest warrant for Putin was justified because the Russian president had committed war crimes.

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that there is a "real prospect" for the case of Russia's illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, in which the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin

•  On March 18, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, praised the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian president and noted that this was the beginning of the process of bringing Vladimir Putin to justice.

• Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba insists that all 123 member states of the International Criminal Court fulfill the condition for Putin's arrest.