The South African government has announced that it will grant diplomatic immunity to participants of two BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) meetings which will be held in summer 2023, including Russian President Vladimir Putin who is now facing an arrest warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Bloomberg reports, citing the official statement.
The document shows that the immunity will be given to the participants of the foreign ministerial meeting in Cape Town on 1-2 June. The immunity will also cover members of the BRICS leaders’ summit which will be held in Durban on 22-24 August.
The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperations informed that it’s “standard conferment of immunities that we do for all international conferences and summits held in South Africa irrespective of the level of participation”.
“The immunities are for the conference and not for specific individuals. They are meant to protect the conference and its attendees from the jurisdiction of the host country for the duration of the conference,” the statement reads.
In early May, The Sunday Times reported that Pretoria asked Putin not to travel to South Africa to attend the BRICS summit. According to the newspaper, the government asked the Russian leader to participate via Zoom.
“We have no option not to arrest Putin. If he comes here, we will be forced to detain him,” one of the sources told The Sunday Times.
The ICC issued the arrest warrant against Putin on 17 March. The Russian president is suspected of being involved in the illegal transfer of children from Ukraine’s occupied regions into Russia.
Following the decision, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the ANC, the country’s ruling party, decided to withdraw from the ICC. His office, however, described his words as an “error” the next day.
The official statement reads that South Africa remains a signatory to the Rome Statute and will continue to pursue equal and consistent application of international law.
