Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, has withdrawn his assurance that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be arrest if he attends next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, saying it would be up to the court to determine.
Lula da Silva also asked for Brazilian membership in the United Nations war crimes court, saying on Monday “Emerging nations usually sign things that are harmful to them”.
Lula said that he wants to know why we are associates but not the United States, not Russia, not India, not China, I’m not saying I’m going to leave the court but I just want to know why Brazil is a signatory.
Putin skipped this year’s G20 meeting in India’s capital, New Delhi, avoiding potential political disgrace and any risk of criminal arrest under the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the battle offense indictment of unlawfully ousting Ukraine’s children. The Kremlin declined the charges urging the warrant against Putin to be “void”.
Moscow announced an arrest warrant for Karim Khan, the prosecutor at The Hague-based war crimes court, in May and he was added to the “wanted list” of its Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which led to the founding of the ICC. Lula raised eyebrows at the weekend when he told Indian news network Firstpost: “If I’m the president of Brazil and if he (Russian President Putin) reaches Brazil, there’s no way that he will be arrested.”
He reversed his statement at a press conference in Brazil telling reporters: “I don’t know if Brazil’s justice will arrest him. It’s the judiciary that determines, it’s not the government.”
