Brazilian President Lula withdraws personal assurance that Putin will not be arrested if he attends the G20 summit in Rio
- President Lula declared: “It is the judiciary that decides, it is not the government. »
Brazilian President Lula has withdrawn his personal assurance that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be arrested if he attends next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Putin missed this year’s rally in the Indian capital, New Delhi, avoiding possible political tensions and any risk of criminal detention under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Brazil is a member of the ICC, but President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva raised eyebrows after telling Indian news network Firstpost: “If I am the president of Brazil and he comes to Brazil, he will not There’s no chance he’ll be arrested.”
But he changed tactics earlier in the day, telling reporters: “I don’t know if the Brazilian justice system will stop him.” It is the judiciary that decides, not the government.
Putin has avoided recent international gatherings and sent his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to New Delhi for the September 9-10 G20 meeting, even though India is not a signatory to the ICC.
Brazilian President Lula, pictured today at the G20 in New Delhi, has withdrawn his personal assurance that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be arrested if he went to the next G20 in Brazil.
Putin, pictured today in Russia’s far eastern Primorsky Krai region, missed this year’s rally in the Indian capital New Delhi, avoiding possible political tensions and any risk of criminal detention.
In March, the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Putin over the war crime charge of illegally deporting Ukrainian children.
The Kremlin denies the accusations, insisting that the arrest warrant for Putin is “void.”
On Saturday, G20 countries adopted a declaration that avoids condemning Moscow for the war in Ukraine, but calls on all states to refrain from using force to seize territory.
The next summit is scheduled for November 2024 in Rio de Janeiro and Lula said he hoped “that by then the war will be over”.
But he also questioned Brazil’s membership in the war crimes tribunal, adding 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,” Lula said.
“I’m not saying I’m going to leave the court, I just want to know why Brazil is a signatory.”
