The South African government is developing new laws that will allow foreign leaders to stay safely in the country, even if an arrest warrant has been issued for them by the Hague-based International Criminal Court, a local news outlet has reported.
According to director-general of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Zane Dangor, the government will take into account the UK practice on the matter, namely including the ICC's article 98 directly in national legislation.
If the 98th article of the Rome Statute is included in the country's legislation, then foreign leaders will receive protection from arrest.
Earlier, the office of the President of South Africa said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attend the BRICS summit in person on August 22-24. Instead, the Russian president would join the meeting online.
The ICC accuses the Russian side, which does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, of the alleged "deportation" of children. The Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that the relocation of children was voluntary and aimed at rescuing from the combat zone and taking them to safe areas.
As stated by Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president, raising the ICC question about the arrest of Russia’s head of state is unacceptable, Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, and any of its decisions are null and void from the point of view of law.