(Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated on Saturday that Russian chief Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be arrested in Brazil if he attends the Group of 20 assembly in Rio de Janeiro subsequent 12 months.
Interviewed on the sidelines of the G20 assembly in Delhi by information present Firstpost, Lula stated Putin could be invited to subsequent 12 months’s occasion, including that he himself deliberate to attend a BRICS bloc of creating nations assembly due in Russia earlier than the Rio assembly.
“I imagine that Putin can go simply to Brazil,” Lula stated. “What I can say to you is that if I am president of Brazil, and he involves Brazil, there is no approach he shall be arrested.”
The Worldwide Legal Courtroom issued an arrest warrant in opposition to Putin in March, accusing him of the struggle crime of illegally deporting a whole lot of youngsters from Ukraine. Russia has denied its forces have engaged in struggle crimes, or forcibly taken Ukrainian kids.
Putin has repeatedly skipped worldwide gatherings, and was not current on the G20 get-together in Delhi, sending International Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute which led to the founding of the ICC. Lula’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On Saturday, the G20 nations adopted a consensus declaration that prevented condemning Russia for the struggle in Ukraine however referred to as on all states to not use power to seize territory.
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Modifying by Richard Chang)