South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has decided that South Africa should withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which last month issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This is reported by Al Jazeera.
The warrant for Putin's arrest means Pretoria, which will host the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit this year, must detain him upon his arrival.
"Yes, the ruling party ... has decided that it would be reasonable if South Africa leaves the ICC," Ramaphosa said during a press conference he held alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
Ramaphosa said the ruling, which came after a meeting of the ANC at the weekend, was made "largely" because of the court's "unfair treatment" of certain countries.
"We would like this matter of unfair treatment to be properly discussed, but in the meantime the ruling party has decided that there must be a way out," he said.
As for whether South Africa would arrest Putin, Ramaphosa said "that matter is under consideration."
South Africa refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which largely isolated Moscow on the international stage, saying it wanted to remain neutral and preferred dialogue to end the war.
This is not the first attempt by South Africa to leave the ISS. It tried to do so in 2016 after a controversy erupted a year earlier when Sudan's then-president Omar al-Bashir visited the country for an African Union summit. South Africa refused to arrest him, despite the fact that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on suspicion of war crimes.
The day before, the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmytro Peskov, announced that the Kremlin had received an invitation for Vladimir Putin to attend the summit of the BRICS member states, which will be held in South Africa in August.
In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, finding him guilty of the illegal deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine. The issuance of the warrant means that Putin could be arrested if he goes to any member country of the International Criminal Court.
Earlier, the administration of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that they would not arrest the Russian leader if he came to the country, despite the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
