South Africa’s president backs governing party’s decision to leave ICC over obligations to arrest Putin

The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has described the decision of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as “prudent”. Mr. Ramaphosa is not in support of the idea of arresting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

The ICC  issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, for “crimes against humanity” in Russia’s war on Ukraine. A statement from the war crimes court said that the warrant was issued over Putin’s suspected involvement in the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

The Kremlin says such claims were null and void, as they bear “no meaning.”

The South African government, as a member of the ICC, is under obligation to arrest Putin when he attends the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) bloc summit which will be held in August in Pretoria.

Mr. Ramaphosa does not want his country to be involved in a fight among superpowers as he believes the court has not treated some countries fairly.

“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,” said Mr. Ramaphosa at a news conference he co-hosted with the visiting President of Finland, Sauli Niinisto.