German Trial: You Can Bet on How Quickly Lukashenka Will Fall

Processes have been launched that the regime cannot resist.

A statement about Lukashenka's crimes was filed with the Federal Prosecutor's Office of Germany.

Charter97.org spoke with one of the initiators of this lawsuit, public activist Anton Malkin, about how this application was filed and what to expect from the initiative:

“We are a group, self-organized in the fall, that seeks to recognize Lukashenka’s regime as terrorist. This is done to create a pressure tool and, in fact, to demolish its regime. Why are we sure that the demolition of the regime is inevitable? Because the person has committed crimes against humanity. Recognition of him as a terrorist or, say, Hitler, automatically makes the economic and political partners of the regime - accomplices or financiers of a terrorist organization. Lukashenka, even for Vladimir Vladimirovich, will become a very uncomfortable person, whom it will be easier to replace than to drag along.

We followed the classic scheme of recognizing terrorists in the European Union, referring to the 2001 document 913 CFSP. This requires a verdict from an authoritative organization, usually a judicial one, as indicated in paragraph 4 of this document. To get a verdict, we submitted an application to the German Federal Prosecutor's Office. We limited ourselves to 10 people in the application in order not to delay the review process.

Moreover, we have a reserve of personal testimony, witnesses, victims. At the moment, there are more than 100 formalized cases, and there are still not formalized ones. In addition, when we applied, the level of trust in us increased significantly, so we can reach out to human rights defenders and work with them.

- It is worth noting that similar cases are taking place in Germany, and some criminals have already been given a real term. What is the chance of starting a case against the Lukashenka regime?

“You obviously mean Syrian affairs. Our team is made up of people who handled these cases. The lawyers worked, in one way or another, somewhere jointly, somewhere separately, but on all terrorism cases that have been conducted over the past 10 years. There is no such case from this industry, where someone from our team does not work. It is impossible to imagine a more professional team.

I cannot imagine a person who would deny what happened today, be it the German attorney general or a judge. We live in the 21st century, and everyone knows what is happening in Belarus. Perhaps, there is only one person who denies this, but, probably, it is not worth calling him a human.

- As history shows, the accomplices in the crimes of dictatorial regimes, sooner or later, were punished. Can we say that now the "X" hour has struck for the accomplices of the Lukashenka regime? What would you say to those officials and security officials who still remain on the "other" side?

- It did not just strike, it is inevitable. Several projects have already started in the same direction, and we are confident that the number of similar initiatives and those involved in them will only grow.

- Can you tell us what these projects are?

- You know, there are a lot of them, I will not talk about all of them, but I will tell you about my favorites. First, our project on recognizing Lukashenka as a terrorist. Then, you can only place bets on how fast Lukashenka will be gone when he is recognized as a terrorist. I bet for two weeks if everything really stops at his place. After all, Belarus is an import-dependent country that cannot exist in isolation. In order for it to exist in isolation, it must be feudal and live by subsistence production, like North Korea. In Belarus, practically nothing can budge without import and partnership.

Secondly, it is a collection of individual cases that have been submitted to different courts. For example, the case of Maksim Kharoshyn, who filed a lawsuit against three or four AMAP officers. In fact, there are already 17 such lawsuits open, and more than 2-3 dozen are being prepared. You need to understand that all hearings are recorded - somewhere in the video, and somewhere in audio or writing. Even if they identify all who submitted these applications, interrupt our team, this will only aggravate the situation for the regime. It will be very difficult to liquidate or persuade the same Attorney General. You see, the regime cannot do anything at all. There is already a lawsuit filed by human rights defenders to the UN Committee against Torture. This is a slightly longer process but also inevitable.

As for the International Court of Justice in The Hague, it does not have any opportunities to implement its decision; however, going there serves as an excellent basis for including Lukashenka on the terrorist lists, and already at the UN level. If the United States adds him to the list, which is very likely because the Senate approved the Democracy Act, and this is a terrorist in five minutes. The American list is very interesting because many countries do not maintain their own, so as not to dilute the bureaucracy and accept the list drawn up by the United States.

Before the opening of the process for Lukashenka, the only option for his officials and the AMAP is a quick escape from Belarus or switching sides, because, after the start, there will be" a very small globe on this planet" for them. You know, everyone talks about Somalia, but Somalis don't like it either.

- What advice would you give to Belarusians who have been tortured and are safe today? Why can't they be silent?

- I cannot give advice to the Belarusians who are inside the country. I will talk about this only when I am there. However, if possible, it is necessary to document everything related to the regime. There is a risk of search, seizure, and destruction of such documents, so they should be well stored. If possible, you should contact human rights organizations that use their documents in such projects. In fact, there are a lot of different processes going on right now. Moreover, documents are not always used openly, there are a lot of anonymous statistics, that is, it is quite safe, it is unlikely that the regime can do anything. Back in August, a huge amount of testimony was collected. No matter how hard they try, they can't repress everyone.

According to my calculations, about one and a half million people left Belarus during the rule of Lukashenka. There was no war, although, death and fertility were sometimes negative but not so much. Question: where are the people? Answer: if they have not died, then they have left. We have practically no refugees from Belarus because Belarus was considered a “safe” country. Consequently, people left for study or work. There was no program for Belarusians to go abroad to work, as for Germans or Jews, so it was necessary to be a very high-class specialist or an intelligent person. Today we see a lot of the smartest people, doctors of science, who participate in protests abroad. With all due respect to the Gorki Agricultural Academy and even the Academy of Management, after all, Lukashenka has been exchanging smart people for obedient ones for 27 years. With all his resources, he doesn't have the best chance to compete with a million and a half people.

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