The opposition in South Africa announced on Tuesday that it requested the intervention of justice to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be arrested if he arrives in the country on the occasion of the BRICS summit in August, informs Agerpres.
The Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party, has sought a court order to compel the South African government to arrest Putin under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant if he tries to attend the summit meeting of the group of states that make up part of South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia.
The ICC issued the warrant in March for the deportation of some children from the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, which constitutes a war crime.
As a member of the Court, South Africa is theoretically obliged to implement the decision, but the government in Pretoria, which has close diplomatic relations with Moscow and insists on neutrality towards the war in Ukraine, has not yet made its intentions known.
The Democratic Alliance explained that the “preventive” judicial approach has the role of ensuring compliance with the government’s obligations, in this case the handing over of Putin to the ICC. The party claimed in a statement that there should be no “judicial ambiguity”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia would be “properly represented” at the BRICS summit, without specifying whether Putin plans to attend the event in person. He added that Moscow starts, “of course, from the principle” that the partners within the organization will not comply with “illegitimate decisions”, in the case of the ICC mandate.
South Africa’s government has already granted diplomatic immunity to officials attending a BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting and summit in August. According to the agency, there are opinions according to which it is a preparatory stage to ensure legal cover for a possible visit by Putin, although the executive in Pretoria claims that it is a standard procedure for the organization of international conferences.
The Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday that “these immunities do not cancel any arrest warrant issued by an international tribunal against any conference participant”.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, South Africa has been criticized for its proximity to Moscow. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appreciated last month that the arrest warrant in Putin’s name “puts sticks in the wheels” of his country.
Editor : D.R.
