Lula affirmed that Putin will not be arrested if he comes to Brazil

On Monday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reversed his assurance that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be arrested if he attended the G20 Summit to be hosted by Rio de Janeiro next year, emphasizing that the decision ultimately rests with the judiciary.

Putin was conspicuously absent from the recent G20 Summit held in New Delhi last weekend, avoiding any potential arrest under an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant related to charges of war crimes in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children during the conflict.

While Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, Lula's statement raised eyebrows when he asserted that Putin would not be detained if he attended the 2024 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

During an interview broadcast on Saturday by the Indian television channel "Firstpost," Lula stated that Putin would be invited to the summit in Brazil, adding, "If I were the President of Brazil and he came to Brazil, there would be no reason to arrest him."

However, Lula backtracked on this unequivocal statement on Monday, telling reporters, "I don't know if the Brazilian judicial system will detain him. The decision rests with the judiciary, not the government."

Putin has been conspicuously absent from international meetings in recent months, including the BRICS summit in South Africa in August. During these summits, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represented Russia.

Despite India's non-signatory status to the Rome Statute, Putin's absence from the New Delhi summit allowed India to avoid any potential diplomatic dilemma arising from his arrest.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, accusing him of war crimes during the conflict that began in February 2022. The Kremlin has denied the ICC's allegations, stating that the arrest warrant against the Russian President is "invalid."

During the recent G20 summit in India, the group issued a statement avoiding condemning Moscow over the war in Ukraine but called on all nations to refrain from using force to acquire territory.

Rio de Janeiro is set to host the next G20 summit in November 2024. Lula expressed hope that "the war will be over" by that time but questioned the utility of Brazil's signing onto the ICC system, noting, "Emerging nations often sign things that end up harming them. I don't want to know why we are signatories, but the United States, Russia, India, and China are not." 

However, he clarified that this does not mean he intends to withdraw Brazil from the ICC system.



AFP