Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday it would be up to his country’s judiciary to decide whether his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin should be arrested when he travels to the G20 summit in Rio in 2024.
An arrest warrant was issued against Mr. Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, accusing him of war crimes in the deportation of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin called The Hague’s allegations against Mr Putin “null and void”.
Although India is neither a signatory nor a party to the ICC Statute, Mr Putin did not attend the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi on Saturday and Sunday. Russia was represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
On Saturday, G20 nations adopted a joint statement denouncing the use of force to seize territory, but did not directly condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview broadcast on Indian television channel Firstpost on Saturday evening, Lula assured that Mr Putin would receive an invitation to Rio de Janeiro.
“I can tell you: if I am president of Brazil and he comes to Brazil, there is no reason for his arrest,” the Brazilian president said.
But the day after the New Delhi summit concluded, Lula changed his mind.
“I don’t know if the Brazilian judiciary will stop him. The decision rests with the judiciary, not the government,” Lula told reporters on Monday morning.
With the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro scheduled for November 2024, Mr Lula said he hoped “the war will be over by then”.
But the Brazilian leader also appeared to question Brazil’s membership in the International Criminal Court, arguing that “emerging countries often sign things that are harmful to them.”
“I want to know why we are members (of the ICC) and not the United States, Russia, India or China,” Mr. Lula stressed.
“I’m not saying I’m leaving the court, I just want to know why Brazil is a signatory” to the ICC statute, he added.
Unlike India, Brazil is a party to the 1998 Rome Statute, the international treaty that led to the creation of the International Criminal Court in 2002, and should therefore theoretically arrest the Russian president if he enters its territory.