The South African government issues an arrest warrant for Putin if he enters the country

The Russian president will not finally travel to the BRICS summit in the African country, in which he will participate by videoconference

July 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A South African court has admitted the request made by the country’s Attorney General’s Office to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin the moment he enters national territory, in accordance with the mandate of the International Criminal Court (ICC). , of which the African country is a member state, and which has ordered the arrest of the president for the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children during the war.

South Africa, however, is spared an international crisis because the Kremlin has confirmed, also this Friday, that the Russian president will not attend the summit of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) that will take place in August in the African country and in which he would have been arrested if he had appeared in person, according to the opinion issued this Friday by the High Court of Gauteng, in Pretoria.

In fact, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, had declared on Tuesday that a possible arrest of Putin would mean “a declaration of war”.

“It would be a reckless, unconstitutional and illegal exercise of the powers vested in the government to declare war on Russia by arresting President Putin,” he said, before asserting that “risking going to war with Russia” would be “incompatible with the Constitution.”

In an opinion issued after learning of Putin’s physical absence from the meeting, the court has confirmed that the Ministry of Justice, after acknowledging that it had not complied with its international responsibilities up to now, has sent the arrest warrant against Putin to the director of the South African National Prosecutor, Shamila Batohi, reports the South African news portal News24.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March on suspicion of a war crime for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from Ukrainian war-captured areas to Russian territory.

By contrast, Moscow not only denies any forced transfer — it claims that it is an evacuation process to keep children away from the danger of the fighting — and has completely disregarded the arrest warrant since it is not a signatory to the Therefore, the Rome Statute does not recognize the authority of the court.

Russia will be represented at the BRICS summit by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.