“South Africa will find a way to ignore the warrant of the International Criminal Court” -expert

Even despite the fact that earlier the government officials announced that they would comply with the court’s warrant regarding the arrest of vladimir putin, the president of russia. This opinion was expressed by Iryna Filatova, Africanist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Emeritus at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine – Odesa.

“You should not expect that the Republic of South Africa will arrest putin. Especially when putin visits the country, which is expected in the near future,” – Iryna Filatova said.

She gave the example of Omar Al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, who was in the same situation as the president of russian federation.

“In 2015, he came to South Africa, met government officials, and local activists called for his arrest. He took off from the military airfield. Several NGOs have applied to local courts with a request asking if it’s legal not to arrest him? The conclusion was that it was completely illegal,” – the expert noted.

She also added that after that, the government even tried to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. But the judiciary noted that this was impossible according to the South African constitution.

“Even if putin comes, South Africa will find a way to ignore the warrant of the International Criminal Court,” – Iryna Filatova added.

She also noted that it is not worth it to expect that other African states that recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court will also comply with its decision regarding vladimir putin.

“Not many countries in Africa support the idea of the International Criminal Court. For many decades they have been saying that the court deals only with African states. The real culprits in their opinion, for example, the United States, which did not ratify the Rome Statute, are outside the attention of this court,” – Iryna Filatova added.

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