South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the International Criminal Court for permission not to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit because it would amount to a declaration of war, Reuters reported in a local court statement published on Tuesday. .

A summit of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is planned to be held in South Africa next month, in which all the heads of state of these countries are expected to participate.

But the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia, and South Africa, as an ICC member, is obligated to arrest him if he appears at the summit.

Ramaphosa made the remarks in a legal response to a lawsuit brought by the opposition Democratic Alliance to force the government to arrest Putin if he sets foot on South African soil. Ramaphosa’s response, filed on June 27, was released on Tuesday.

In response, Ramaphosa said he had initiated proceedings at the ICC under Article 97, under which states can request a waiver of arrest because of problems that prevent them from doing so.

Ramaphosa said he could not reveal the details of those proceedings.

“South Africa has obvious problems with complying with the request for the arrest and transfer of President Putin,” he said in a statement.

“Russia made it clear that the arrest of the current president would be a declaration of war,” he said.

A representative for Ramphosa declined to comment, and an ICC representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In March, Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev said that any attempt to arrest Putin would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

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