On Wednesday, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on European countries to follow Lithuania in investigating crimes committed by the Belarusian regime.
"We welcome the decision of the Lithuanian prosecutor to start this criminal investigation,” Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition leader, told BNS.
“We encourage all other countries to follow this initiative of the Lithuanian prosecutor and start investigating crimes against humanity of the regime,” she added. “Not a single case should be forgotten and every case should be investigated.”
Read more: Lithuanian prosecutors launch probe into regime violence in Belarus
Earlier on Wednesday, Lithuania’s prosecutors launched a pre-trial investigation into crimes against humanity based on a complaint received from Belarusian citizen Maxim Khoroshin.
He fled to Vilnius after allegedly being tortured by Belarusian police officers. He said he was still receiving threatening calls.
In November, Alexander Dobrovolsky from Tikhanovskaya’s staff in Lithuania said they would seek to coordinate similar complaints filed by torture victims in other European countries.
Tikhanovskaya, the opposition frontrunner against Alexander Lukasheko, was forced to flee to Vilnius several days after the rigged August 9 presidential election.
Read more: Surviving captivity in Minsk. Belarusian detainee recalls abuse and endless beatings
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