The National Anti-Crisis Management has sent an appeal to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requesting an examination of a number of public statements made by Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly on December 18, 2025.
In the letter, the National Anti-Crisis Management noted that, commenting on the expulsion of 123 political prisoners from Belarus, Lukashenka effectively stated that he had:
- rejected a request from the United States to allow those released to remain in Belarus, insisting that the United States remove them from the country and determine their future fate outside its territory;
- reaffirmed that those released should not be given an “opportunity to return” to Belarus;
- confirmed that people leaving the country are deliberately denied the issuance of passports, labeling them as “enemies.”
“The National Anti-Crisis Management believes that these statements serve as additional evidence of a deliberate policy by the Belarusian authorities to persecute and deport individuals deemed ‘disloyal’,” the organization said in its appeal.
Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management Pavel Latushka said that Lukashenka’s statements can be qualified as evidence of a state policy of deportation and forced displacement.
“The regime is effectively illegally depriving people of their liberty, illegally deporting them beyond the borders of their own country, banning their return under the threat of new criminal prosecutions, and unlawfully depriving them of documents.
All these statements by Lukashenka we qualify not as rhetoric, but as additional evidence of a deliberate state policy.
A policy of persecution. A policy of deportation. A policy of forced displacement of the civilian population. And these are direct signs of crimes against humanity as understood under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Latushka said.
He emphasized that the National Anti-Crisis Management will continue to collect materials and submit them to the ICC.
It should be recalled that at the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, Lukashenka said that released political prisoners should not live in Belarus. “We do not need them. If they are your people, take them, for God’s sake, take them away, do whatever you want with them. They leave and then scream at the top of their lungs: there are no passports! So what, are we supposed to issue passports to you, to our enemies?” Lukashenka said.
