Riot police beat a demonstrator during a protest against the rigged presidential election, in Minsk, Belarus, 10 August 2020. Photo: EPA / Yauhen Yerchak
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday opened an investigation into “past and present allegations” of crimes against humanity dating back to 2020 committed by the Belarusian government under dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
The court announced that it had “reasonable grounds” to believe that the authorities in Belarus carried out “coercive acts leading to deportation” of its political opponents as part of state policy that was “approved by the highest levels of government”.
The court added that these crimes seemed to form part of “a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population”, due to the “large scale, the number of victims, and the organised nature of the acts”.
The case was originally referred to prosecutors in The Hague by the government of Lithuania in September 2024, and had been under preliminary examination by the court since then. The ICC examined evidence submitted by Belarusian human rights organisations, which covered “transnational” crimes committed by Lukashenko’s regime against the Belarusian opposition on the territory of both Belarus and Lithuania following widespread anti-government protests in 2020.
Although Belarus itself is not a party to the ICC, any crimes against humanity committed “in part” on the territory of a participating state, such as Lithuania, can fall under the remit of the court. As such, the investigation will concentrate on criminal actions by Lukashenko’s government that resulted in his political opponents being forcibly expelled to Lithuania, as such crimes are considered to have taken place within the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Over half a million Belarusians are believed to have fled the country in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, when Lukashenko launched massive reprisals against his political opponents after hundreds of thousands of Belarusians turned out to protest against the regime. Of those that fled, some 60,000 resided in Lithuania as of 2024.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told her followers that she welcomed the ICC’s decision to open an investigation. “This decision gives us hope that legality will be restored, that the guilty will be held to account, and that the victims will have the right to truth and justice,” she wrote on Telegram.
