Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if the Government will raise at the UN the reporting of the regime in Belarus to the International Criminal Court to investigate the Lukashenko regime in respect of (a) torture allegations as documented by the International Accountability Platform for Belarus, (b) the interception of RyanAir Flight FR4978 in May 2021 and (c) the recent immigrant crisis on the Poland-Belarus border.

The UK has been clear in its condemnation of the Belarusian regime's harmful and aggressive behaviour, including the continued repression of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Belarus. There is not an international body where we would not be willing to exert our influence and lead on applying pressure to the Lukashenko regime. We continue to support efforts through UN and other international mechanisms, and the work of independent NGOs, to investigate human rights violations in Belarus and hold those responsible to account. We have received the final fact-finding investigation report from the International Civil Aviation Organisation into the forced diversion of Ryanair flight 4978, which we are studying carefully. We remain in solidarity with our Polish and Lithuanian counterparts and will continue to work to counter the behaviour of the Lukashenko regime, including the use of migrant flows to exert pressure on Belarus' neighbours.