Situation Lithuania / Belarus.
On 12 March 2026 the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court concluded its preliminary examination and opened an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity by Belarusian authorities. The case is officially registered as the “Situation in the Republic of Lithuania / Republic of Belarus”.
Timeline.
30 September 2024. Lithuania, a State Party to the Rome Statute, refers the situation to the Office of the Prosecutor. The Office begins a preliminary examination of alleged crimes against humanity committed in Belarus, noting that part of the elements of the alleged crimes was committed on the territory of Lithuania.
30 September 2024 – 12 March 2026. The Office conducts the preliminary examination, assesses jurisdiction, admissibility, and gravity. (ICC announcement)
12 March 2026. The Office concludes the preliminary examination and opens an investigation. (Al Jazeera, 12 March 2026 · Kyiv Independent)
What is being investigated.
Crimes against humanity, specifically deportation and persecution through deportation against actual or perceived opponents of the Government of Belarus on political grounds.
The Office determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the coercive acts leading to deportation constituted a course of conduct pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy, and that the alleged crimes were encouraged or approved by the highest levels of the Government.
The scope covers any past and present allegations of crimes since 1 May 2020, where at least one element of the crime was committed on the territory of Lithuania. (ICC summary of findings, PDF)
How jurisdiction is possible.
Belarus is not a State Party to the Rome Statute. The ICC normally cannot investigate crimes committed by nationals of, or on the territory of, non-States Parties.
The case is built on territorial jurisdiction through Lithuania, a State Party. The legal threshold: at least one element of the alleged crime — here, the act of deportation — must have been committed on the territory of a State Party. Where opponents of the Belarusian government were coercively pushed across the border into Lithuania, the deportation element completes on Lithuanian territory.
Independent analyses: Justice Info · Doughty Street Chambers · FIDH.
Related but separate: ICJ case.
On 19 May 2025 Lithuania instituted proceedings against Belarus before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — a different court and a different subject. The ICJ case concerns the 2000 Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants and the alleged instrumentalisation of migration from third countries (mainly the Middle East) toward EU borders. The ICJ case is not about Belarusian nationals.
Procedural status: By Order of 17 July 2025 the Court fixed 19 January 2026 for Belarus's Memorial on jurisdiction and admissibility, and 20 July 2026 for Lithuania's Counter-Memorial. The case is in its preliminary phase.
Sources: ICJ case 200 · Order 17 July 2025 · EJIL:Talk!
Why this matters for Belarusians abroad.
An ICC investigation is a procedural step, not a verdict. It does not by itself change the outcome of an individual asylum claim. But it is a formal recognition, by an international court, that there are reasonable grounds to believe Belarusian authorities pursued a State policy of deportation and persecution of political opponents from 1 May 2020 onward.
For civil society and counsel working on individual cases, this provides a contemporaneous, independent reference point on country conditions — produced by a court whose findings national agencies are unlikely to dismiss as advocacy.
Civil-society guidance: DIGNITY · Danish Institute Against Torture · Viasna Human Rights Centre.
Godze does not provide legal advice. We compile sourced facts and connect them to data on how those facts are received by national agencies.