The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be detained if he enters the country to attend the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in August, according to the South African administration.
Days after President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that acting on the ICC’s mandate would be viewed as a declaration of war in an affidavit, the decision was made. Russia has made it plain that detaining its president in office would amount to declaring war. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared that risking conflict with Russia would be against Constitution.
Additionally, the Democratic Alliance (DA), an official opposition party, approached the High Court in Pretoria to compel the administration to promise to detain Putin. An earlier notice granting diplomatic immunity to representatives attending the BRICS meeting was published in the gazette by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor.
Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, will attend in place of Vladimir Putin, according to the Presidency. The ICC has charged Putin with war crimes in relation to his country’s protracted battle with Ukraine, and South Africa, a party to the Rome Statute, is required to place Putin under arrest.
[sourcelink link=”https://www.reuters.com/world/south-africa-putin-will-not-attend-brics-summit-by-mutual-agreement-2023-07-19/”]
