British lawyers produce Lukashenko 'Prosecution Kit'
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
28.09.2011 06:43
A British law firm has produced a dossier of evidence of human rights abuses allegedly committed by president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, from which a private or public prosecution can be made anywhere in the world.
Lukashenko; photo - east news
Lukashenko; photo - east news
McCue and Partners, based in London, says the 'Prosecution Kit' will be published open source on the Internet, with which "civil society, NGOs, private lawyers and governments worldwide now have immediate access to the materials necessary to seek Lukashenko’s arrest should he travel to their jurisdiction.”
“Heading a Belarusian/international coalition of leading lawyers, we have prepared a criminal case against Lukashenko on charges of torture and hostage taking,” says a statement released by the British law firm on Tuesday.
“These are international crimes with universal jurisdiction. Courts not just in Belarus but all around the world may now seek to prosecute him,” the statement continues.
Once described by the US as “Europe's last dictator”, Lukashenko had a travel ban and other sanction slapped on him and his regime by the EU following disputed presidential elections last December and mass arrests and imprisonment of opposition activists that followed.
It was announced on Monday that Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish activist and journalist living in Grodno, Belarus, has been banned from leaving the country due to his court sentence for allegedly defaming President Alexander Lukashenko.
“I was called in for inspection, and had to provide fingerprints,” the Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent said, adding that he was informed he was barred from leaving Belarus, and that was not allowed to change his residence without permission from the country’s authorities.
The ban on foreign travel comes the same week as an Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw, which is to tackle EU relations with the group’s countries, including Belarus.
“Lukashenko must now look over his shoulder wherever he travels,” says McCue and Partners of its 'Prosecution Kit'.
“By preparing this prosecution, his victims, their families and international civil society have ensured that impunity with respect to torture and electoral fraud in Europe will not stand in the 21st Century.” (pg)