The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has called on the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko.
“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 Aliaksandr Lukashenka,” the EU said in a online statement using an alternative form of the Belarusian President’s name.
The EU claims that Belarus shares responsibility with Russia for transgressions against Ukraine “including through the regime’s role in the illegal transfers of children,” according to the statement.
“The Lukashenka regime has engaged in unprecedented internal repression against the Belarusian people and has become an accomplice in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The EU’s strategy towards Belarus must therefore bear in mind the crimes of the Lukashenka regime, seek accountability, and, in cooperation with the Belarusian democratic forces, find the necessary solutions and take decisive action to fulfil the European aspirations of the Belarusian people for freedom and independence”, Petras Auštrevicius, MEP from Lithuania, stated in the report.
With the report adopted by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee with 49 votes in favor, 3 against, with 2 abstentions, it will go the the European Parliament as a whole for a vote in September.
