July 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has considered that it would be “a declaration of war” to arrest his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, due to the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), during the celebration of the BRICS summit which is held in August in Johannesburg.
“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,” Ramaphosa said in an affidavit before the Gauteng High Court, according to the News 24 news portal.
In this sense, the South African president has indicated that “risking going to war with Russia” would be “incompatible with the Constitution.” “I have constitutional obligations to protect the national sovereignty, peace and security of the Republic, and to respect, protect, promote and fulfill the rights of the people to life, security and protection, among others,” he explained.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March for Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, Maria Lvova Belova, for the war crime of illegal deportation of Ukrainian minors to Russian territories in the context of the war in Eastern Europe, launched by order of Moscow at the end of February 2022.
This court does not hold trials in absentia, so it is necessary that Putin was handed over by Moscow or arrested outside of Russia, which is not a member of the ICC. South Africa, for its part, if it is a signatory to the Rome statute, so if it has evidence of the presence of someone wanted by the ICC, it should arrest and hand him over.
However, the South African government has granted diplomatic immunity to all those attending the BRICS summit, an organization made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In this way, Putin could travel to the country despite the arrest warrant issued by the ICC, although the Kremlin has not yet confirmed his attendance at the appointment.
