Putin wants to attend an August summit. Host country South Africa doesn't want to have to arrest him
Putin wants to attend an August summit. Host country South Africa doesn't want to have to arrest him
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attend an economic summit in South Africa next month and the country is desperately trying to persuade him to stay away to avoid the legal and diplomatic fallout over his international arrest warrant, South Africa's deputy president said in an interview with...
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attend an economic summit in South Africa next month and the country is desperately trying to persuade him to stay away to avoid the legal and diplomatic fallout over his international arrest warrant, South Africa's deputy president said in an interview with a news website on Friday. As a signatory to the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin on an indictment the court issued against the Russian leader in March for war crimes involving the abduction of children from Ukraine.
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Seems like journalists failed to do their due dilligence on this one. From an international law standpoint South Africa has absolutely no obligation to arrest Putin as he would be protected under diplomatic immunity as stipulated on the Vienna Convention of 1969 (and custom). In fact Article 98 of the ICC treaty directly prevents this from happening.
What South Africa doesn't want is the shit show of having Putin on an official visit. The guy will be bad PR and a liability to them at this point.
Yes, it's not so much a legally mandatory thing as it is the optics of hosting a wanted man and a war criminal.