- By Mayukh Debnath
- Mon, 11 Sep 2023 03:05 PM (IST)
- Source:ANI
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who received the gavel of G20's presidency from India on Sunday, has said that it would be upon Brazil's judiciary to decide if Russian President Vladimir Putin faces arrest or not on his arrival in the country for the next annual summit of the multilateral grouping.
An outstanding warrant for Putin's arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine requires member states of the international tribunal to arrest the leader as and when he sets foot in their territory.
On Sunday, Lula had assured that Putin would not be arrested if he decided to attend the 2024 G20 Leaders' Summit in Rio de Janeiro. However, on Monday, he said that the executive and the legislative branches of Brazil's government should not decide upon the execution of the ICC's arrest warrant for Putin.
"It is not the government or the Parliament it is the Brazilian judiciary system who should make that decision on whether he should be arrested in Brazil," Lula stated. He further said he wanted to review the ICC treaty and called it detrimental to developing countries.
"I want to study the ICC issue because the US did not sign the ICC treaty and Russia did not sign the ICC treaty. So, I want to know why Brazil became the signatory... India is not a signatory of the ICC treaty. So I think it is the emerging countries that have signed the treaty. These are the things that cause damage to the developing countries," the Brazilian President said.
In August, Putin refrained from physically attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. It is widely speculated that the move by Moscow was aimed at avoiding Putin's arrest by authorities in South Africa, which is a signatory to the Rome Statute of the ICC.
(With inputs from ANI)