According to Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, arresting Vladimir Putin would be equivalent to declaring war. Putin got an invitation to the August BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) meeting in Johannesburg.
But the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes.
Pretoria would be required to execute the arrest warrant as a member of the ICC if the Russian president enters the country.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party in South Africa, has petitioned the court to order the administration to guarantee Putin’s surrender. According to court documents made public on Tuesday, Ramaphosa responded by calling the DA’s application “irresponsible” in his affidavit.
To declare war on Russia by arresting President Putin, he continued, would be a “reckless, unconstitutional, and unlawful exercise of the powers granted to the government.”
He claimed that Russia has made it plain that detaining its president in office would amount to a declaration of war. According to the president of South Africa, the nation is requesting an exception from the ICC’s regulations because carrying out the arrest may endanger the “security, peace, and order of the state.”
The BRICS organization, which sees itself as a counterbalance to Western economic dominance, is currently chaired by South Africa.
SOURCE: Channels, IOI News
IMAGE: Moscow times, The Times
