The president of Brazil has reneged on his promise that Russian President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be detained if he visits the Group of 20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro next year, stating the judiciary will make the decision.
Brazil’s participation in the UN war crimes tribunal was also called into doubt by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who stated on Monday that “emerging countries often sign things that are detrimental to them.”
Lula questioned, “I want to know why we are members and not the United States, Russia, India, or China.” “I’m not declaring that I’ll leave the court. Simply put, I’m curious as to why Brazil has signed.
Putin chose to skip this year’s G20 summit in the Indian capital of New Delhi rather than face political backlash or the possibility of being arrested on charges related to an ICC arrest order.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March in connection with the alleged war crime of forcible deportation of Ukrainian children. The accusation against Putin is disputed by the Kremlin, which maintains that the warrant is “void”.
Karim Khan, the war crimes court prosecutor based in The Hague, was placed on Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs’ “wanted list” and issued an arrest warrant in May.
Brazil ratified the Rome Statute, which resulted in the creation of the ICC. When he said to the Indian news outlet Firstpost at the weekend, Lula raised some eyebrows. He said: “If I’m the president of Brazil and he [Putin] comes to Brazil, there’s no way that he will be arrested.”
At a press conference on Monday in Brazil, he took a different tack, telling the media: “I don’t know if Brazil’s justice will jail him. The judiciary, not the government, makes decisions.
Despite the fact that India is not a signatory to the ICC, Putin sent his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to the G20 summit in New Delhi instead of attending recent international conferences.
The G20 nations approved a statement on Saturday that avoided criticizing Moscow for the conflict in Ukraine but urged other states to abstain from using force to seize territory.
Lula expressed his hope that “by then the war is over” as the next summit is scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024.
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