ICC’s Putin arrest warrant presents dilemma for South Africa before BRICS summit – The North Africa Post

The Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) arrest warrant issued for Russian’s Vladimir Putin has put South Africa’s authorities between a rock and a tough place, as it’s now weighing what to do if the Russian president accepts an earlier invitation to attend the August BRICS summit within the nation.

The Hague-based courtroom issued the arrest warrant for the Russian chief on March 17 for warfare crimes involving the deportation of Ukrainian youngsters to Russia, as a result of such acts are warfare crimes underneath two articles of the Rome Statute, which established the courtroom.

Putin faces arrest if he units foot in any of the 123 signatory states to the statute, 33 of that are African states. Being a signatory to the ICC’s Rome Statute, South Africa is obligated to execute the courtroom’s worldwide arrest warrants. However Pretoria can also be Moscow’s shut ally and has shunned criticizing Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s a troublesome scenario, however, you already know, I feel that the Cupboard wants to debate this,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister for worldwide relations, stated in an interview. “As soon as I’ve the opinion, I’ll take it to Cupboard so our actions can be guided by the general views of presidency.”

“This isn’t the primary time (South Africa) has confronted such a dilemma,” stated Sascha-Dominik Bachmann, legislation professor from the College of Canberra, including that “ICC arrest warrants towards sitting heads of state are uncommon.” In an article in The Dialog, he defined that when Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir visited the nation in 2015 to attend a summit of the African Union, the Jacob Zuma-led authorities determined to not act upon the ICC arrest warrant and refused to arrest him, citing immunity from prosecution for sitting heads of state underneath worldwide legislation.

“It’s not unreasonable to argue that Ramaphosa’s authorities would need to tread rigorously to keep away from any such tensions,” Bachmann stated, including that “alternatively, welcoming Putin, thus underscoring South Africa’s unbiased international coverage, would see the nation lose worldwide credibility.”