A tale of the shrinking world of an accused war criminal

[chandonar0]

The Putin-South Africa arrest warrant saga:


Since March of this year, the travel plans of one particular accused war criminal have been the subject of much speculation and legal debate. On 17 March 2023, the ICC announced that it had issued an arrest warrant special lead for President Putin (and one of his officials – Ms Lvova-Belova). This, unsurprisingly, occasioned world-wide interest and attention. One focus of this was President Putin’s invitation, together with other heads of state, to attend the August 2023 BRICS Summit hosted in South Africa – an ICC Rome Statute state party. Politicians, political pundits, journalists, scholars, and lawyers began to ask: Will Putin attend the Summit, or won’t he? If he does, will South Africa arrest him? If it doesn’t, wouldn’t South Africa violate its international and domestic legal obligations?

In the face of repeated refusals by the South African government openly to accept that it would comply with its obligations to arrest President Putin, in May 2023, the Democratic Alliance (the DA), the official parliamentary opposition, launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court (the Putin matter). In that application, the DA sought declaratory and interdictory relief: asking the High Court to confirm South Africa’s obligation to arrest President Putin, and ensuring that the necessary steps were taken to domesticate and execute the ICC arrest warrant.