Kyiv weighs criminal case against Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko (Photo: REUTERS/B. Rentsendorj)
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office may soon open criminal
proceedings against self‑declared Belarusian President Alexander
Lukashenko, Reuters reported
on July 28.
The news agency cited a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office to the Belarus Democratic Forum.
“The Ukrainian president's office said in the letter that it was responding to an appeal by an exiled opposition group, the Belarus Democratic Forum, which wrote to Zelenskyy in May asking Kyiv to prosecute Lukashenko for war crimes, genocide and ‘state terror,” Reuters said.
“The Forum accused him of complicity in Russia's war in Ukraine and in the forced transfer of at least 2,442 Ukrainian children to Belarus via a programme documented by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.”
Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the presidential office, wrote in a letter to the forum that the appeal had been forwarded to the Prosecutor General’s Office and asked prosecutors to “take appropriate response measures” if there are legal grounds to do so.
Reuters noted there is currently no realistic prospect that
Lukashenko would face a Ukrainian court, but a criminal investigation could
increase international pressure on the Belarusian leader.
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