President Cyril Ramaphos’ remarks about South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC were reported in leading Russian news outlets after the law firm issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
Major news agencies in Russia have published detailed information that the Republic of South Africa has started the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court. Specifically, this was reported by the TASS agency on Tuesday, April 25.
The words of President Cyril Ramaphos reflected in the press after his meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niiniste, who is in Pretoria for a state visit.
“The decision of the ANC (the political party that has a majority in the lower house of the South African Parliament, the African International Congress) is due to the ICC taking sides on certain situations,” he said. said the country.
The politician did not specify which situations were at issue.
International Criminal Court: What does this institution do?
The ICC is the first permanent international criminal justice body tasked with prosecuting those responsible for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. Established on the basis of the Rome Statute adopted in 1998, it officially started its work on July 1, 2002.
Its jurisdiction includes crimes committed after the entry into force of the Rome Statute.
The ICC hears criminal cases related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
As of April 2013, the Rome Statute has been ratified by 123 states worldwide. However, some countries have never signed the Rome Statute. These countries include the USA, China, India, Israel and Iran.
The Russian Federation signed the Rome Statute on 13 September 2000 but has not yet ratified it. In 2016, the country withdrew from the ICC after the annexation of Crimea was recognized by the court as an occupation.
Why does the Russian Federation follow the news about the ICC?
After the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March after convicting him of illegally deporting thousands of children from Ukraine, the Russian media began to actively cover the activities of the ICC.
As a result, if the Russian leader now comes to one of the member states of the International Criminal Court, he will be arrested.
Russia has already stated that the alleged decision has no legal consequences for the country and its president.
Maria Zakharova, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, stressed that the country has not signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and is not obliged to abide by its decisions.
In response, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, said that the arrest warrant of Vladimir Putin was legally invalid. And the question of the responsibility of the Russian leader is unacceptable.
Recall, on March 22, it was learned that they wanted to meet with the Kremlin for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin in South Africa. A spokesman for the South African President later said his country was “aware of its legal obligations” in connection with the court’s decision to arrest Vladimir Putin in The Hague.
And on March 21, the media wrote that the Italian police had collected evidence of the Russian Federation’s mass crimes in Ukraine. The materials for the International Criminal Court are based on thousands of testimonies from Ukrainian refugees. One of the women told how her friend was raped by 5 soldiers from the RF Armed Forces.
Source: Focus
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