The warrant for the arrest of Putin, who is accused of war crimes, forced the South African Republic to conduct legal consultations, because the country does not want to comply with such a decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Bloomberg writes about it.
According to two officials from the Ministry of International Affairs, the arrest of Putin in South Africa is unlikely, even though the country has signed and ratified the Rome Statute, that is, it is obliged to comply with the decision of the ICC.
They also added that the Republic of South Africa is looking for options to avoid the execution of the warrant for the arrest of the Russian president.
- Active legal consultations on this matter are caused by the fact that the BRICS summit, which includes the Russian Federation, will be held in South Africa in August. Putin should come there.
- However, not only South Africa does not want to arrest Putin — Hungary has officially declared that it will not arrest him if he visits their country. They say that under the Hungarian legal system, Budapest has no legal grounds to arrest the Russian president, even though Hungary has signed and ratified the Rome Statute.
- In 2015, South Africa already refused to comply with the ICC warrant, when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country. After the criticism, the then leader of South Africa Jacob Zuma even offered to leave the IСС.