Lawsuit Against Lukashenka Filed Before International Criminal Court

For crimes against humanity against journalists in Belarus.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is filing a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Lukashenka's crimes against humanity, targeting journalists, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.

“Because of the blatant impunity that Lukashenka enjoys, RSF is filing a complaint for crimes against humanity in connection with the persecution of journalists.

We call on Prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate and bring those responsible to justice,” said Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

Since August 2020, Aliaksandr Lukashenka has created a system of large-scale and systematic persecution of journalists with the aim of eliminating them. Their guilt is that they “dared to cover unprecedented peaceful demonstrations calling for fair and transparent elections and their aftermath.”

“The particularly serious cases analyzed by RSF are undoubtedly crimes against humanity related to the imprisonment, persecution and forced displacement of Belarusian journalists because of their journalistic work.

The vicious circle of impunity must be broken. RSF calls on the ICC prosecutor to include crimes against journalists in his preliminary investigation.

We welcome Lithuania's referral of cases of crimes committed by Aliaksandr Lukashenka to the ICC, and we call on other states parties to the Rome Statute where Belarusian journalists live to follow Lithuania's example and refer these cases to the ICC,” said Advocacy and Assistance Director Antoine Bernard.

Reporters Without Borders, with the support of its partner, the Belarusian Association of Journalists, has documented the regime's crimes, listing 589 cases of arbitrary arrests of independent media workers in a country where there were about 2,000 of them five years ago. At least 42 journalists are still in prison in Belarus.

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