Anastasia Pechenyuk19:22, 04/25/23

After the issuance of an ICC warrant for Putin’s arrest, it became known that South Africa had no plans to detain the Russian dictator.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that his ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has decided to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court, according to the South African edition of IOL .

According to the South African leader, the ICC did not treat African leaders properly.

“The ruling party, the ANC, has decided that it is appropriate for South Africa to withdraw from the ICC, mainly because of the way the ICC handles such issues. We think we would like this issue of unfair treatment to be properly discussed. But meanwhile, the ruling party has again decided to leave. This is an issue that will be considered,” Ramaphosa said.

Note that this is not the first attempt by South Africa to withdraw from the ICC. In 2015, South Africa refused to comply with an ICC warrant to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was attending an African Union summit in that country and faced criticism. In 2016, the then President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, proposed to withdraw from the ICC, the country filed a notice of withdrawal. 

The opposition Democratic Alliance party challenged the constitutionality of the announcement of withdrawal from the ICC. In 2017, the South African Supreme Court ruled that the government’s notice was illegal and should have been withdrawn, which they eventually did. 

The ruling African National Congress party continued to support withdrawal from the Rome Statute and the ICC, respectively. In 2019, a new bill to withdraw from the charter was submitted to Parliament for consideration, in March 2023 it was withdrawn. 

How South Africa is trying to avoid the execution of the ICC warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin 

Last month, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is accused of involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during an all-out war. A lifetime warrant obliges the 123 member countries of the Rome Charter to arrest the Russian dictator if he enters their territory. 

South Africa, which is hosting the BRICS summit this year and is looking forward to Putin’s visit to the event in August, is trying hard to avoid the execution of the ICC warrant. 

After the warrant was issued, it became known that South Africa had no plans to detain the Russian dictator.  It also became known that South Africa will hold consultations with the Kremlin on this issue.

The president of the country was accused by the ICC that the alleged warrant for the arrest of the president of the Russian Federation “puts spokes in the wheels” for holding the BRICS summit.

Last week, the ruling party, the ANC, opened an internal debate on the possible withdrawal of the country from the Rome Statute.

(C)UNIAN 2023