MEPs Warn Lukashenka Regime That Accountability Is Inevitable

Those responsible for torture will be brought to justice.

Małgorzata Gosiewska, Chair on behalf of the Bureau of the EP Delegation for Relations with Belarus, along with her deputies Tomas Tobé and Michał Kobosko, as well as the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Belarus, Helmut Brandstätter, issued a joint statement on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Charter97.org publishes the statement in full:

“26 June 2026 - On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we pay tribute to all those in Belarus who have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and other grave human rights violations merely for exercising their fundamental freedoms.

Almost six years after the fraudulent 2020 presidential election, torture remains one of the Belarusian regime's most systematic and entrenched instruments of repression. The latest report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus confirms that torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment continue to be systematically inflicted upon political prisoners, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists, and ordinary citizens who peacefully express their views.

The regime continues to systematically inflict physical and psychological abuse, including severe beatings, electric shocks, unbearable detention conditions, prolonged solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, denial of food and water, denial of access to fresh air, humiliation, and threats of sexual violence. Equally alarming is the continued practice of incommunicado detention, whereby political prisoners are denied access to lawyers and contact with their families for months or even years. Such practices may amount to torture and may also constitute enforced disappearance under international law. The forced labour imposed on political prisoners constitutes another form of torture, combining physical exhaustion, psychological coercion, and forced participation in supporting Russia's military-industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine.

The regime has revived the Soviet practice of punitive psychiatry and increasingly employs it as another instrument of political repression against political prisoners.

The situation of women political prisoners is particularly alarming. As a particularly vulnerable group, they are subjected to especially cruel forms of torture and degrading treatment. The cases of Aliaksandra Pulinovich, Volha Mayorava, Alena Lazarchyk, and Iryna Melkher are of particular concern.

The deliberate denial of adequate medical care, together with degrading detention conditions designed to break prisoners physically and psychologically, has already caused irreversible physical and psychological harm and has cost numerous political prisoners their lives. Since 2021, at least ten known political prisoners have died or been killed in Belarus: Vitold Ashurak, Dzmitry Dudoyts, Mikola Klimovich, Ales Pushkin, Vadzim Khrasko, Ihar Lednik, Aliaksandr Kulinich, Dzmitry Shletgauer, Valiantsin Shtermer, and Andrei Padniabenny.

These crimes continue in an atmosphere of near-total impunity, with no credible investigations and no accountability for the thousands of cases of torture documented since 2020.

We reaffirm our full solidarity with all victims of torture and their families. We once again call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and all those arbitrarily detained in Belarus. Those responsible for torture and other grave human rights violations must be identified, prosecuted, and held accountable. Torture is an international crime and must never be subject to any statute of limitations. Victims must receive justice, rehabilitation, and adequate compensation.

We also support the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur, including independent international monitoring of places of detention and prompt, impartial investigations into all allegations of torture. The Belarusian authorities must fulfil their obligations under international human rights law and immediately end the use of torture and ill-treatment.

On this day, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the people of Belarus in their pursuit of freedom, democracy, human dignity, and the rule of law. Torture is an international crime. It can never be justified, excused, or forgotten. There can be no impunity for torture. We will continue to stand with the victims until justice is done.

Жыве Беларусь! Long Live Belarus!”

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