It will be up to the Brazilian Justice to arrest or not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he attends the G20 organized in 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Lula declared on Monday, reversing his statements the day before, in which he assured that the Kremlin’s strongman would not be arrested. in Brazilian territory.
First modification:
2 min
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, declared, on Monday, September 11, that it is up to his country’s Justice to decide on a possible arrest of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, if he attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro in 2024, taking a step back from his statements over the weekend, in which he claimed the opposite.
Vladimir Putin is the subject of an arrest warrant issued in March by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of war crimes for the deportation of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin called The Hague’s accusations against Vladimir Putin “null and void.”
Although India is neither a signatory nor a party to the ICC statute, the Russian president did not attend the G20 summit of heads of state and government on Saturday and Sunday in New Delhi. Russia was represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
On Saturday, the G20 adopted a joint statement denouncing the use of force for territorial conquest, but stopped short of directly condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
During an interview broadcast Saturday night on the Indian television channel Firstpost, Lula assured that Vladimir Putin would receive an invitation to travel to Rio de Janeiro. “I can tell you that if I am president of Brazil and he comes to Brazil, there is no reason for him to be arrested,” the Brazilian president said.
“I want to know why” Brazil is a member of the ICC
But the day after the summit concluded in New Delhi, Lula changed his mind. “I don’t know if the Brazilian justice system will stop him. It’s up to the justice system to decide, not the government,” Lula told reporters Monday morning.
With the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro scheduled for November 2024, Lula said he hoped that “by then, the war” would be over.
But the Brazilian leader also appeared to question Brazil’s membership in the ICC, arguing that “emerging countries often sign things that are detrimental to them.”
“I want to know why we are members (of the ICC) and not the United States, nor Russia, nor India, nor China,” he stressed. “I’m not saying I’m going to leave the Court, I just want to know why Brazil is a signatory” to the ICC statute, she added.
Unlike India, Brazil is a party to the 1998 Rome Statute, the international treaty that led to the creation of the ICC in 2002, and would therefore, in theory, have to arrest the Russian president if he entered its territory.
With AFP
#Lula #backs #possibility #arresting #Putin #G20 #Brazil