President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa says in court that arresting Putin if he attends the BRICS summit in August would be a declaration of war against Russia

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that arresting the Russian president if he attends the BRICS summit in August would be a declaration of war against Russia.

Ramaphosa has asked the International Criminal Court for permission not to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This was reported by Aljazeera.

"It would be a reckless, unconstitutional and illegal use of the powers granted to the government to declare war on Russia by arresting President Putin," Ramaphosa told the court in a sworn statement.

Ramaphosa did not want this statement to be made public, but the court ordered it to be.

As a reminder, a meeting of the BRICS member states will take place in South Africa in August this year. South Africa, as a state party to the International Criminal Court, will be obliged to arrest Putin should he turn up at the summit.

Photo: PresidencyZA | Twitter