South Africa, where Putin is going, will hold a consultation with the Kremlin because of the Hague arrest warrant
Putin was supposed to arrive in August, but after the order of the ISS in South Africa, they do not know how to proceed.
South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor said the government will have to negotiate a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin. This country should arrest the Russian president if he enters the country, and the visit is just expected in a few months.
According to the local newspaper SABC News, Pandor noted that there will be not only a discussion in the government, but also consultations with the Russian side. This has not been done before.
“We will study the provisions of our legislation, perhaps have discussions in the cabinet of ministers, as well as with our colleagues in Russia in order to determine how to proceed,” Pandor said in a comment to reporters published by SABC News editor Sophie Mokoena in Twitter.
Recall that the issue of the obligation to arrest Putin is especially acute for South Africa. It is this country that will host the BRICS summit in August, at which the Russian president was supposed to attend. Earlier, the country did not express a strong readiness to detain the Russian president, as the ICC obliges, instead, South Africa announced its intention to “cooperate with various relevant stakeholders.”
Putin’s arrest warrant – what you need to know
Last week, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. Both are considered involved in the deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia during a full-scale war.
Countries participating in the Rome Charter are now required to arrest Putin if he appears on their territory. The Republic of South Africa signed the charter in 1998, ratified it in 2000, and two years later it came into force. In 2016, South Africa filed a withdrawal notice, but then canceled it.
In addition to South Africa, another 122 countries have corresponding obligations. At the same time, Ukraine is not among them – our country has signed but not ratified the charter.
Experts explained that a warrant for Putin’s arrest was unlikely to lead to significant results in bringing Putin to justice in the near future. However, the decision is extremely important, in particular, from the point of view that until Russia extradites Putin to The Hague, the lifting of sanctions is impossible.
The Russian authorities initially stated that the Russian Federation did not take the ICC decision to heart, but subsequently the country’s Investigative Committee began criminal proceedings against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and three judges.
After the decision of the ICC in the Russian Federation, they began to say that they would return the abducted Ukrainian children.