YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Russian President Vladimir Putin could risk arrest if he decides to visit South Africa for the BRICS summit. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin. The intergovernmental organization and international tribunal accused him of unlawfully deporting and transferring children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

According to the ICC laws, all signatories must comply with its ruling. South Africa, which has been trying to withdraw its membership from the organization, is compelled by law to arrest Putin if he enters the country. 

South Africa chairs the BRICS group in 2023. The theme for this year is “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism”. Johannesburg will host the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China at the 15th BRICS Summit in August this year.

According to the local press, President Cyril Ramaphosa had established a commission to look into the ICC arrest warrant against Putin. The committee concluded that Johannesburg would have no choice but to arrest the Russian President.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has said that the Russian President is yet to decide if he will physically attend the summit. According to spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “appropriate decisions will be made closer to the time” of the event. 

“But in any case Russia will actively take part in the conference,”

 Peskov said.  

The arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin isn’t the first obstacle that South Africa has encountered with the International Criminal Court (ICC). In 2016, the country’s Government initiated a process to leave the organization. Back then, the bone of contention was a similar arrest warrant against the former Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir.

South Africa has strained relations with the ICC 

In 2010, the court in Hague charged the Sudanese president with three counts of genocide in Darfur. Over 200,000 people allegedly died in his campaign to exterminate three non-Arab ethnic groups in the region. 

 In 2015, Omar al-Bashir visited Johannesburg to attend the African Union summit. However, despite the arrest warrant on him, the Government failed to arrest him and allowed him to leave the country. 

A South African appeal court accused the government of “disgraceful conduct” for its failure to comply with ICC’s ruling. 

Faced with international pressure, the Government tried to withdraw from ICC. However, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) moved to the High Court against the move. It argued that the government had failed to seek parliamentary approval for the move. 

In 2017, the court ruled in the opposition’s favor and termed the Government’s decision to leave as “unconstitutional and invalid”. 

Last month, incumbent president, Cyril Ramaphosa opened a can of worms again after he announced that the country would withdraw from ICC. 

“The governing party, the African National Congress, has taken that decision that it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC, largely because of the manner in which the ICC has been seen to be dealing with (these) type of problems,” 

Ramaphosa told reporters.

However, hours later, his office withdrew his statement, leaving everyone wondering if he will go ahead to arrest Putin later this year. 

Days later, South Africa’s parliament abandoned the legislative process it started seven years back to pull South Africa out of the ICC’s Rome Statute.

It now remains to be seen if Vladimir Putin will risk going to BRICS Summit and if the South African Government will arrest him, if he does.

Also Read: Joe Biden to Meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to prevent default by June 

The post Vladimir Putin faces arrest if he travels to South Africa for BRICS summit appeared first on CoinChapter.

---

Filed under: Bitcoin - @ May 3, 2023 4:15 am