The International Criminal Court, which last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, has decided that South Africa should leave. According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has made this decision.
Putin would have to be detained upon arrival in Pretoria, which is hosting the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) bloc summit this year due to the March warrant against him.
“Yes, the governing party … has taken that decision that it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC,” Ramaphosa said during a news conference co-hosted with the visiting President of Finland Sauli Niinisto.
Ramaphosa claimed that the decision, which came after the ANC’s weekend meeting, was made “largely” as a result of what is thought to be the court’s discriminatory treatment of some nations.
“We would like this matter of unfair treatment to be properly discussed, but in the meantime, the governing party has decided once again that there should be a pull-out,” he said.
Following allegations that the Kremlin had forcibly deported Ukrainian children, Putin was issued an arrest warrant.
Ramaphosa stated that “that matter is under consideration” when asked if South Africa will detain Putin.
South Africa, a superpower on the continent, has refrained from denouncing the invasion of Ukraine that has largely isolated Moscow on the international scene, claiming that it prefers to remain neutral and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The country of South Africa has made attempts to leave the ICC before.
Following a disagreement that arose when Sudan’s then-President Omar al-Bashir visited the nation for an African Union summit in 2015, it made an attempt to do so in 2016. Despite al-Bashir being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, it declined to take him into custody.
SOURCE: AFP
