South Africa plans to change its law so that it has the power to decide whether or not to arrest a leader wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A deputy minister has told the BBC Obedbabela’s remarks come amid intense speculation over whether South Africa stands by its invitation to Russia’s President Putin to visit in August. The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin over the Ukraine war.
South Africa had earlier invited him to attend a summit of business leaders. Russia has not said whether Mr. Putin plans to attend the summit. Meanwhile, Pretoria has also granted diplomatic immunity to Russian officials attending something that its Foreign Affairs Department described as standard procedure.
Brics is intended to strengthen ties between the nations that make it up. Brazil Russia India China and South Africa in June, we’ll be submitting the law to Parliament. Obed Bapala, deputy minister in the South African presidency, told the BBC World Services News Hour programme Ram through the law South Africa will give itself exemptions on who to arrest and who not to arrest.
Mr. Bappola said under its current laws, South Africa is obliged to arrest Mr. Putin if he arrives on its shores as it is a member of the ICC, but South Africa has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, insisting it wants to remain neutral.
The ICC issued its warrant for Mr. Putin in March, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes, though Moscow has rejected such allegations. South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has launched a court application to compel the authorities to arrest Mr. Putin should he arrive in August.
Mr. Bapola said that South Africa was also writing to the ICC about a waiver. This refers to Article 98 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court in 2002, while Article 27 says no one is immune from prosecution by the ICC.
Article 98 appears to suggest that the ICC could not ask South Africa to arrest the Russian leader unless Russia agreed to waive Mr. Putin’s immunity from prosecution. The deputy minister also lashed out at the ICC for its double standards, saying the late Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president, would have been disappointed by the war crimes court.
“We never thought that the ICC that we have today would be what it is; they never indicted Tony Blair; they never indicted George W. Bush for their killings of Iraqi people,” referring to the former UK and U.S. leaders and their invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Mandela would have said that the inequality and inconsistency of the ICC are problems. Mr. Bapola also pointed to past examples of exemptions from international justice, like the UK’s decision not to extradite In 1998, General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, was arrested in London at the request of a Spanish judge seeking to put him on trial for human rights abuses during his 17-year rule, but the UK government freed him after 16 months on the advice of medical experts who said he was unfit to stand trial. He died back home in 2000.
