South Africa’s largest opposition party claimed on Tuesday that it had taken legal measures to ensure that Vladimir Putin was arrested if he entered the nation for a summit in August.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is asking the courts for “an order” requiring the government to arrest Mr Putin if he arrives in South Africa to attend the Brics summit (a group of countries comprised of South Africa, Brazil, China, India, and Russia), as required by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for the war crime of “deporting” Ukrainian children as part of Moscow’s attack against Ukraine.
Because South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court, the Russian president should be arrested upon his arrival.
But Pretoria, which maintains close diplomatic relations with Moscow and insists on its “neutrality” in the conflict in Ukraine, has not yet indicated whether it will do so.
According to the DA, it has filed a “pre-emptive” judicial case to guarantee that the government “respects its obligations” and turns over Mr Putin to the ICC if he visits South Africa. The declaration stated that no “judicial ambiguity” should exist.
Kremlin spokesman Boris Peskov confined himself to saying on Tuesday that Russia would be “duly represented” at the Brics summit, without specifying whether Mr Putin planned to attend.
Moscow “assumes, of course” that its Brics partners “will not be guided” by “illegitimate decisions”, namely the ICC arrest warrant, he added.
The DA’s legal action comes as the government granted diplomatic immunity to officials attending a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers this week, followed by a summit of heads of state in August.
Some read the decision as a preparatory step to provide legal cover for Putin’s visit, but Pretoria insists it is standard procedure for the organisation of international conferences.
“These immunities do not cancel an arrest warrant issued by an international court against any participant in the conference”, the foreign affairs ministry defended itself on Tuesday morning.
South Africa has been criticised since the start of the war in Ukraine for its proximity to Moscow. In April, Mr Ramaphosa said that the ICC’s arrest warrant against Mr. Putin was putting a “spanner in the works” for South Africa.
