Ten Belarusians Lukashenko | a new criminal case was filed against him in Germany

Lawyers say the Belarusian president has accused him of crimes against humanity in response to protests against the government.

Ten Belarusians have called on the German federal prosecutor to open a judicial investigation against President Alexander Lukashenko and Belarusian security agents for alleged crimes against humanity in a crackdown on protests against the government.

Lawyers who have filed a lawsuit for 10 people currently living across Europe have cited laws of universal jurisdiction that allow countries to prosecute crimes against humanity, including war crimes and genocide, regardless of where they were committed.

Germany has been particularly active in dealing with cases related to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lawyers say clients have documented more than 100 examples of “violence, systematic torture and other abuses” by the Belarusian government in its crackdown on protests after Lukashenko won opposition elections last August over opposition claims.

“The incumbent government is severely oppressing its population with repression that includes arbitrary arrests, politically motivated criminal harassment and other forms of repression,” they added.

Lawyers said the clients were jailed and given “false arrests, torture and abuse” while they were being held.

The Belarussian government did not immediately pay attention.

Police have arrested thousands of people for taking part in demonstrations against Lukashenko.

Authorities stated that the perpetrators were violent criminals or revolutionaries backed by the West, and that the actions of law enforcement agencies were appropriate and necessary.

The Syrian case provides a “precedent”

The laws of the German universal jurisdiction were used in February to obtain a guilty verdict against a former member of Assad’s security services for inciting torture of civilians.

Citing the case, lawyers representing 10 Belarusians said in their file that the group was seeking an independent investigation and prosecuting those found guilty.

The Syrian precedent showed that “if there is the will of law enforcement agencies, they can do it,” said Onur Ozata, one of the lawyers.

Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, in self-imposed exile in Lithuania, welcomed the legal filing.

“There will never be impunity in Belarus, and today’s news is a clear example of that,” he said in a statement.

In March, the main human rights body of the United Nations agreed to set up a team of investigators to gather evidence of alleged excessive use and torture by Belarusian authorities.

Yury Ambrazevich, the Belarusian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the move was “another attempt to intervene in the internal affairs of our state.”

Although the European Union and the United States have been punished in the face of protests, Lukashenko’s government has been adamant against pressure to change course from abroad.

The 66-year-old leader, who is backed by an ally of Russia, has claimed that he has resisted the Western-led revolution.