Latushka Calls for Suspending Lukashenka Regime’s Access to Interpol Information System

Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet and member of the Coordination Council delegation to PACE Pavel Latushka took part in a meeting of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on the topic of “Countering Transnational Repression”. The meeting took place on April 21.

PACE rapporteur on transnational repression Konstantinos Efstathiou spoke at the event and presented information obtained following a meeting at Interpol. Latushka submitted an additional statement in which he described how the Lukashenka regime uses Interpol for political purposes, the United Transitional Cabinet reported.

“This is not simply abuse by the regime. Interpol mechanisms are effectively becoming an instrument of persecution and a threat to the safety of thousands of Belarusians who have left the country as a result of the policy of large-scale political repression”, the deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet said.

Latushka called on PACE member states that are also Interpol members to check requests from Belarus in criminal cases for possible political motivation, and to draw the attention of Interpol’s General Secretariat to the Lukashenka regime’s repeated abuse of the organization’s mechanisms.

The deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet proposed considering the application of Paragraph 4 of Article 123 of Interpol’s Rules on the Processing of Data and suspending the Lukashenka regime’s access to the organization’s information system.

“Interpol must uphold the rule of law, not serve as a means of handing innocent people over to dictators”, Latushka stressed.

The PACE rapporteur on transnational repression supported the position of the Belarusian delegation representative. Efstathiou noted that Belarus is a clear example of a country where Interpol notification systems are used for the political persecution of dissidents abroad.

The teams of the National Anti-Crisis Management and the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will cooperate on countering attempts by the regime to use Interpol as an instrument for the political persecution of Belarusians who disagree with the policies of the Lukashenka regime.