South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) for permission not to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin "because that would amount to a declaration of war", a local court filing published today showed.
South Africa is due to host a summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Club of Nations next month, which is expected to be attended by all the heads of state of those countries.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.
South Africa, as a member of the ICC, is obliged to arrest him if he appears at the summit.
Ramaphosa made the comments in a legal response to court action brought by the opposition Democratic Alliance to force the government to arrest Putin if he sets foot on South African soil.
Ramaphosa's response, which was submitted on June 27, was published today, Reuters reports.
In it, he stated that he had initiated proceedings before the ICC, in which states can declare that they do not have to carry out an arrest because of problems that prevent them from doing so.
Ramaphosa said he could not disclose details of the proceedings.
"South Africa has obvious problems with the execution of requests for the arrest and surrender of President Putin," his submission states.
"Russia has made it clear that arresting its current president would be a declaration of war," he said.
An ICC spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
In March, Putin's ally Dmitry Medvedev said that any attempt to arrest Putin would amount to a declaration of war.
South African officials have repeatedly said the summit will take place, despite the controversy with the ICC. Alternatives are also being considered, amid speculation that the summit could be moved to China, which is not a signatory to the ICC.
Ramaphosa led a mission of six African leaders to Kiev and Moscow last month with the aim of reaching a peace deal. In his court filing, he suggested those efforts could be in jeopardy.
"The arrest of President Putin would represent a new complication that would prevent any peaceful solution," he said.
The Kremlin has yet to say publicly whether the Russian president intends to attend the summit, and Ramaphosa said no final decision had been made. South Africa previously threatened to withdraw from the ICC after failing to arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he attended the African Union summit in Johannesburg in 2015.
South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday at a UN gathering to mark the court's 25th anniversary that "the ICC must... guard against becoming an instrument of a global power struggle."
While South Africa has officially maintained neutrality in the war between Russia and Ukraine, abstaining from voting on UN resolutions on the conflict, Western countries consider it one of Moscow's closest allies on the continent.
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