Zim Now Writer
South Africa has granted diplomatic immunity to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his delegation and all international participants for BRICS-related events to be held in the country.
The immunity follows the warrant of arrest for Putin which was issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in March.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin when he lands in the country.
Despite this, South Africa, as the current chair of the BRICS alliance, has officially invited Putin to the summit in August.
A gazetted notice issued by the International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor guarantees the Russian leader immunity from personal arrest or detention.
The notice, signed on May 19 and gazetted on Monday, states that Putin and his international counterparts will be granted immunities and privileges provided in terms of Section 6(1)(a) of the Diplomatic Immunity and Privileges Act.
The act states that this immunity is granted to officials and experts of the United Nations, any specialised agency or organisation, and representatives of any state participating in an international conference or meeting convened in South Africa.
Section 6(1)(a) of the act sets out that immunities “are specifically provided for in the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946, or the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the specialised agencies, 1947, as the case may be, in respect of the participation in conferences and meetings”.
“Immunity from personal arrest or detention and from seizure of their personal baggage, and, in respect of words spoken or written and all acts done by them in their capacity as representatives, immunity from legal process of every kind,” reads the document.
The International Relations Department is also seeking a legal opinion on how to deal with the ICC’s arrest warrant.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Cape Town on Thursday and Friday.
Meanwhile, opposition Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen filed an application seeking an urgent order to the government to arrest Putin if the ICC requests South Africa to arrest him if he sets foot in the country.
Steenhuisen, has requested a three-part order, which seeks to confirm that the other respondents to his application are obliged to ensure that Putin is arrested if he enters South Africa.
Steenhuisen seeks an order confirming that the director-general of justice, on receipt of a request from the ICC to arrest and surrender Putin, must forward the arrest warrant to a magistrate.
The South African government had indicated that it is seeking a legal loophole that would allow it to host Putin without violating the ICC Rome Statute.
While Article 27 of the Rome Statute stipulates that even sitting heads of state are not immune from prosecution by the ICC, Article 98 appears to provide an exception to this general rule.
Article 98(1) states, “The Court may not proceed with a request for surrender or assistance which would require the requested State [in this case South Africa] to act inconsistently with its obligations under international law with respect to the state or diplomatic immunity of a person … of a third state, [in this case Putin and Russia] unless the Court can first obtain the cooperation of that third state for the waiver of the immunity.
South Africa tried to invoke Article 98 when the ICC asked it to arrest and surrender then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
However, the ICC ruled then that because the UN Security Council had referred the Sudan situation to the ICC, Article 98 did not apply.
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