This is not an international treaty, but a political declaration

Source: sb.by

First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lukashenka’s regime, Sergey Lukashevich, spoke about the ratification of an agreement between Belarus and Russia "on measures for the mutual protection of citizens from unjustified prosecution by foreign states and international judicial bodies", which provides for the refusal to extradite persons enjoying immunity to an international court or tribunal. NAM has commented on this statement.

First, there were never any expectations that the regimes in Belarus and Russia would voluntarily surrender their representatives into the hands of international justice for crimes committed under international law.

According to Article 35 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, no agreements between Belarus and Russia create obligations for third countries, where the criminals of the two regimes can be arrested today. This makes the future document essentially a political declaration.

Sergey Lukashevich. Source: belta.by

Second, Mr. Lukashevich stated that "international law provides immunity for the so-called trio: heads of state, government, and foreign ministers", likely referring to the International Court of Justice case concerning the "arrest warrant".However, in paragraph 61 of that very decision, the Court stated:

"The rules governing the jurisdiction of national courts do not affect immunities under customary international law. However, the immunity from jurisdiction enjoyed by incumbent ministers for foreign affairs (and, by extension, heads of state and government) does not mean that they enjoy impunity in respect of any crimes they may have committed… Immunity from jurisdiction does not mean impunity from criminal responsibility. Incumbent or former foreign ministers may be subject to criminal proceedings before certain international criminal courts, where they have jurisdiction".

We remind that the ICC has jurisdiction over international crimes committed by Lukashenka and Putin, while Article 27 of the Rome Statute explicitly states that "This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity", and that "Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person".

Putin and Lukashenka in Valaam. Source: gazeta.ru

The immunities of Lukashenka and Putin are not an obstacle to their criminal prosecution and the possibility of their potential arrest in the territory of any state party to the Rome Statute — let alone for individuals lower in the hierarchy.

Third, the fact that this “declaration” is planned to be signed only by Minsk and Moscow indicates that, as of today, no other country is willing to play along in this spectacle. It seems that the document is being signed exclusively for the self-reassurance of the dictators. This also underlines the fact that this issue deeply troubles them. Against this background, we reaffirm that we will only intensify our efforts to hold Lukashenka accountable for the crimes committed.

Fourth, we would like to point out that the statement of the regime’s MFA came after the report of a group of independent UN experts, which named Lukashenka, Karayeu, Karpenkou, and other individuals as being most responsible for crimes against humanity in Belarus, and who are therefore potentially subject to international criminal prosecution.

Commenting on this decision, the head of NAM, Pavel Latushka, noted:

"Sergey Lukashevich, who considers himself the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Lukashenka’s regime, and who worked for many years in Argentina, also covering Chile, should know well the fate of Augusto Pinochet and the fact that no appeals to immunity ever helped him".

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