European Parliament: Lukashenko must be put on trial, Belarus must be disconnected from SWIFT

In addition to the trial of Lukashenko, EU parliamentarians demand from the heads of state to introduce new economic sanctions against the republic and expand the "black lists".

The reason for the harsh speech of the European deputies was the forced landing in Minsk of a Ryanair flight, committed to arrest the founder of the opposition telegram channel Nexta Roman Protasevich and his companion Sophia Sapega.

The plane landed on the personal order of Lukashenko, who threatened Protasevich with the death penalty. MEPs called what happened to Protasevich and Sapieha "an act of state terrorism". As noted by finanz.ru, 626 out of 676 MEPs voted for such a wording in the document of the European Parliament.

As follows from the text of the resolution, massive violations of human rights are taking place in Belarus. The situation became especially aggravated after the August presidential elections, which many citizens considered illegitimate due to massive falsifications in favor of the country's long-term leader, Alexander Lukashenko, who has not left office since 1994.

After the elections, mass protests began in the country: people took to the streets demanding Lukashenko's resignation, holding fair elections and the release of political prisoners. The authorities responded with brutal repression.

“Since the elections in August last year, 34,000 people have been detained in Belarus; 14 thousand Belarusians were forced to flee the country after more than 3 thousand criminal cases were instituted against the protesters, 470 people, including seven minors, became political prisoners, and 4.6 thousand complained of torture and violence”, - says in the message.

Referring to election fraud, the EP considered that Lukashenko "is not the legitimate president" of Belarus. And the story of the hijacking of the plane with 170 passengers on board clearly showed that the Lukashenko regime has become "a threat to international peace and security", - follows from the text of the resolution.

Given the growing threat, MEPs called on the EU to expand blacklists against Belarusian officials and security officials, as well as to introduce additional economic sanctions against state corporations and enterprises close to Lukashenko in the field of oil and wood processing, production of potash fertilizers and others. If all the recommendations are accepted, this will lead to an economic blockade of Belarus.

“In addition, the parliamentarians are calling for“ temporarily excluding Belarus from the SWIFT system”, - limiting credit lines for Belarusian banks and stopping the transfer of technology and know-how to the Belarusian authorities”, - the newspaper notes.

The EP proposes to convene an international tribunal to investigate Lukashenko's crimes.