2023-07-19 09:11:07
The case has taken a judicial turn, with South Africa’s main opposition party using the courts to force the government to ensure Putin is arrested. The president: “Irresponsible request”
“Arresting Vladimir Putin would be tantamount to declaring war on Russia.” These are the words of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who is in the midst of a national controversy over the decision to welcome the Russian president to the BRICS summit – the meeting of the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa scheduled in Johannesburg from 22 to 24 August.
Putin was invited to the meeting of the five great emerging powers, but there is a problem: since March he has been the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the war crime of “deportation of Ukrainian children”. Thousands of Ukrainian children that Russia allegedly took illegally from war zones and made into a kind of war booty. He charges that Putin categorically rejects.
But even if South Africa has always refused to condemn Moscow for the war in Ukraine, being part of the ICC, it should theoretically arrest Putin if he enters its territory. A serious diplomatic dilemma for Pretoria which has taken a judicial turn.
Indeed, South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has used the courts to force the government to ensure that Putin is arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court, should he indeed enter the country.
Ramaphosa called the opposition’s request “irresponsible”.
«Russia has made it clear that the arrest of its incumbent president would amount to a declaration of war. It would be inconsistent with our Constitution to risk involving the country in a war with Russia,” she wrote, arguing that this would violate her duty to protect the country.
July 19, 2023 (change July 19, 2023 | 09:12)
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