Brazil: Brazilian President Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has withdrawn his personal assurance that Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin would not be arrested if he attended next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Lula added that it would be up to the judiciary to decide.
During this year’s conference in Delhi, Mr. Lula extended an invitation for the Russian president to attend the November 2024 event.
“What I can tell you is that, if I’m Brazil’s president, and if he comes to Brazil, there’s no reason he’ll be arrested,” Mr, Lula quoted.
The President also raised doubts about Brazil’s involvement in the United Nations war crimes court, stating that “emerging countries often sign things that are detrimental to them.”
“I want to know why we are members, but not the United States, not Russia, not India, not China. I’m not saying I’m going to leave the court. I just want to know why Brazil is a signatory,” Mr. Lula said.
Mr. Putin was absent from this year’s G20 meeting in New Delhi, India, to avoid potential political backlash and the risk of arrest due to an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
In March 2023, the ICC issued a warrant for Mr. Putin’s arrest on charges of war crimes related to the alleged unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin refutes these allegations, asserting that the warrant against the Russian President is invalid.
Russia issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Karim Khan, the prosecutor at the war crimes court in the Hague, in May. Mr. Khan was subsequently placed on the “wanted list” by Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
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