May 20 (UPI) -- Lithuania on Monday filed a case against Belarus in the International Court of Justice, accusing its southern neighbor of facilitating a large-scale smuggling scheme.
The filing initiates legal proceedings against Belarus in the World Court, based in The Hague.
"We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law," Lithuanian Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus said in a statement.
Lithuania specifically accused Belarus of violating the United Nations Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which was adopted in 2000, to supplement the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
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