EU Parliament calls on ICC to consider arrest warrant for Lukashenko
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Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to consider issuing an arrest warrant for Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, the European Parliament said in a press release on July 18.
“With the ICC already having issued arrest warrants for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, MEPs call on the ICC to consider a similar arrest warrant for Alexander Lukashenko,” the report says.
“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.”
Belarus is responsible for damage caused to and crimes committed in Ukraine, MEPs point out, including through the regime’s role in the illegal transfer of children.
The report calls on the EU institutions and member states to take all necessary steps at the international level to enable the criminal prosecution of those Belarusian political and military leaders responsible for crimes against humanity and genocide.
Earlier the Belarusian opposition issued a report alleging that the Lukashenko government was involved in the illegal deportation of children from the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia.
The report states that 2,150 Ukrainian children, including orphans between the ages of six and 15, were sent to so-called recreation camps and sanatoriums in Belarus. The children were brought to the Golden Sands sanatorium in the Gomel Region, the Ostashkovskoe town sanatorium, and the Dibrova camp in Minsk.
Lukashenko personally approved the transfer of the children to Belarus and supported it in every way possible, according to the report.
Ukrainian authorities assert that Russia has removed nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children from the territories it currently occupies.
On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, for their involvement in unlawful removal of children from Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022.
On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution recognizing the forced displacement of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide.
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