APA-Cape Town (South Africa) South African police are not in possession of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin because the matter is outside the “scope of responsibilities” for local law enforcement agents, police chief Fannie Masemola has said.
Masemola’s response was contained in a written reply to a parliamentary question posed by the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to Police Minister Bheki Cele during a House debate on Tuesday.
The police chief said his organisation was not responsible for interacting with international institutions like the ICC, which are able to issue warrants of arrest for foreign leaders.
The ICC in March issued the arrest warrant to detain Putin if or when he sets foot on South African soil to attend the August summit of the five-member group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).
Pretoria is under pressure to state whether it would carry out the arrest warrant from the ICC should Putin dare visit the country to attend the BRICS summit.
The court is accusing Putin of deporting some 30,000 children from Ukraine to Russia, among other alleged war crimes, in the current war that started with the invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
Putin denies this.
While it appeared increasingly unlikely that Putin would travel to South Africa for the BRICS summit, the South African government would want to avoid being placed in an awkward situation to execute the ICC’s arrest warrant should Putin land on its shores, according to observers.
NM/jn/APA