By: Natasha Archary
Immunity or not, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a court application at the Gauteng High Court pushing for Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s arrest upon his visit to South Africa.
The DA is requesting a declaratory order that if Putin arrives in the country for the BRICS summit he is arrested, detained and surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This after the ICC labelled Putin a wanted man for what it calls credible allegations over his role in war crimes.
Putin is accused of being responsible for the deportation of children in Ukraine into Russia. The allegations were called outrageous and unacceptable by the Kremlin (Russian government).
The DA launched the court application to avoid a repeat of the Al-Bashir saga when the South African government failed to uphold its duty to make an arrest in 2015.
On Tuesday, 30 May, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation announced that diplomatic immunity would be granted to all attendees of the BRICS summit to be held in SA in August.
“The DA’s court application outlines the precise steps to be taken should a request for President Putin’s arrest and surrender be forthcoming from the ICC.
These steps include that the Director General of Justice and Constitutional Development must immediately forward the request to a Magistrate in terms of section 8(2) of the Implementation Act.
Subsequently, any warrant of arrest endorsed by a Magistrate must be given effect to by the government, following which President Putin must be detained and surrendered to the ICC.
The DA is seeking this declaratory order to ensure that there is no legal ambiguity relating to the procedure to be followed, and the obligations placed upon the state, should President Putin set foot in South Africa.”
The DA is launching a court application for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation @DIRCO_ZA announces that it will provide diplomatic immunity to all attendees of the two meetings involving #BRICS https://t.co/pRe52JhPqE pic.twitter.com/TzBMfXKIgs
— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) May 30, 2023
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