South Africa considers inviting Putin to summit via Zoom so that he avoid arrests – Sunday Times

South Africa will invite Russian president Vladimir Putin to attend the BRICS summit via Zoom rather than in person after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president.

Source: Sunday Times

Quote: "President Putin will be asked by South Africa to attend a key summit via Zoom and not in person after Pretoria sought legal advice about its obligations to arrest the Russian leader, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court."

Details: Putin was invited to the summit of the leaders of five countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and the hosts, South Africa.

The latter refused to support sanctions against Russia or condemn its aggression in Ukraine.

The recent issuance of an arrest warrant for Putin by the ICC, which accused him of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territory, has put South Africa's ruling party in an awkward position.

South Africa is one of the countries that signed the Rome Statute, which obliges it to comply with the decisions of the International Criminal Court.

Last week, president of South Africa, appointed a special government committee headed by the country's vice president, which is supposed to study options for actions by the authorities due to the issuance of a warrant for Putin's arrest.

According to the outlet's source, the committee will not be able to find any other options, except for Putin's participation in the video conference summit from Moscow.

South African officials have confirmed that Pretoria is negotiating with Moscow about this.

Background:

• At a press conference with President of Finland Sauli Niinistö, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the ruling party had decided that South Africa should withdraw from the International Criminal Court, which last month issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• This is not the first attempt by South Africa to leave the ICC. The state attempted to do so in 2016 after ignoring a 2015 arrest warrant for Sudan's former president, Omar al-Bashir.
• In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, finding him guilty of the illegal deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine. The issuance of the warrant means that Putin could be arrested if he goes to any member country of the International Criminal Court.

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