The South African opposition seeks to issue a court order to arrest Putin if he travels to the country

The Democratic Alliance (AD), the main opposition party in South Africaconfirmed this Wednesday that he has taken legal action so that the Russian president, Vladimir Putinbe arrested if you travel to the country, where you could attend a summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies next August.

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“The AD had no choice but to start a court action”, the party said in a statement, recalling that it wrote to the Government “twice” to request confirmation that it will comply with its legal obligations, but it has been “ignored”.

The AD filed a complaint with the Gauteng High Courtprovince where they are johannesburg and Praetorshipto ask for a “declaratory order” that, if Putin arrives in the country to attend the BRICS summit, the South African government must arrest him, as required by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As a Member State of the ICC, South Africawhich will host the summit from August 22 to 24 in johannesburgis obligated to cooperate in the arrest of putinafter that court issued an arrest warrant against the president last March for alleged war crimes in relation to the conflict of Ukraine.

South Africa confirmed in March that he invited the Russian president to participate in the summit, although he admitted that this order from the ICC is “a cause for concern.”

The Ministry of International Relations of South Africa issued a notification on Monday to guarantee the diplomatic immunity of the attendees of the BRICS summit, which seemed to open the way for the attendance of the Russian president.

Given the commotion caused in some South African media, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clayson Monyelaclarified on Twitter that “These immunities do not nullify any court order that an international tribunal may have issued against any conference attendee.”

“These immunities are standard for organizing international conferences and summits. All countries grant similar immunities.”Monyela added.

In this context, the AD stressed that it seeks the aforementioned “declaratory order to ensure that there is no legal ambiguity related to the procedure to be followed and the obligations imposed on the State, in the event that the president putin set foot in South Africa”.

South Africa claims to have taken a neutral stance on the war in Russia against Ukraine and has requested dialogue to resolve the conflict.

This position is not only linked to the political and economic strategic role that Moscow has in some countries Africabut also for historical reasons such as Russian support for the anti-colonial and liberation movements of the twentieth centurysuch as the fight against the segregationist apartheid regime that prevailed in South Africa.

Likewise, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosahas proposed to his counterparts in Ukraine and Russia the deployment of a “African leaders peace mission” for “find a peaceful solution” to the war between the two countries.

Brazil, Russia, India and China created the BRIC group in 2006, which was joined South Africa in 2010 adding the letter S to the current acronym.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.