Human rights advocates have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court regarding Lukashenko's regime.

"The Belarusian regime has systematically targeted all independent voices for the past five years, starting with journalists. Due to the outrageous impunity it enjoys, 'Reporters' is filing a complaint regarding crimes against humanity related to the persecution of journalists," quotes the organization its head of the Eastern Europe department, Zhanna Kavelie.

Since August 2020, when the Belarusian authorities launched an unprecedented campaign to suppress the opposition amid mass protests, the organization has documented arbitrary arrests of nearly 400 journalists, with 43 of them still in custody.

Among them are three journalists from the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe: Igor Karney, Igor Losik, and Andrei Kuznechik.

The repression by the authorities has forced many Belarusian reporters to flee to Poland and Lithuania, the organization notes, adding that forced deportation "is itself classified as a crime against humanity."

In September, the Lithuanian authorities announced that they had approached the ICC to investigate alleged crimes against humanity during the suppression of protests against Lukashenko. The Khan office has begun a preliminary investigation, notes the Belarusian service of RFE.

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