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| ©Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin via REUTERS |
June 1 (Reuters) - South Africa is mulling its options over an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin should he accept an invitation to a BRICS summit in August. A member of the ICC, South Africa would theoretically be required to arrest Putin under the warrant issued in March by the court, which accused him of the war crime of forcibly deporting children from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. However, South Africa had already invited Putin to the Aug. 22-24 meeting in Johannesburg of BRICS leaders of emerging economies, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. One option gaining traction among South African officials would be to ask the group's previous chair China to host the summit. Former President Thabo Mbeki, whose views on international relations hold much sway among government officials, said the conference was unlikely to occur in South Africa.
A deputy minister, Obed Bapela, told Britain's BBC that South Africa was planning to pass legislation that would give Pretoria the option to decide whether or not to arrest leaders wanted by the ICC. South Africa has issued diplomatic immunity to all leaders attending the meeting and a gathering of BRICS foreign ministers in Cape Town this week. However, this does not override any warrant issued by any international tribunal against any attendee. South Africa previously signalled its intention to withdraw from the ICC following protests about its failure to arrest Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir, wanted on genocide charges, when he attended an African Union summit in Johannesburg in 2015. The governing African National Congress decided in December that South Africa should abandon the process and try to effect changes to the ICC from within.
