South Africa must abide by international law if Putin visits the country — ICC Chief Prosecutor

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, believes that South Africa must comply with international law if Putin visits South Africa in August this year.

Khan said this in an interview with CNN.

"South Africa is a state party to the ICC; they know what the law is, and I think they will do the right thing. And we will assess what actually happens at the BRICS summit and respond accordingly," Khan said.

In May, South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation issued an order extending diplomatic immunities to participants in the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa summit. The summit will be held in August in Johannesburg. This has led to discussions about how the granting of immunity will affect Putin's status. Republic of South Africa has ratified the Rome Statute, so it has to arrest the Russian president, whose arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court.

Later, the South African government announced that it was preparing legislative changes to allow it to decide whether to arrest people under an ICC warrant. As a result, the opposition Democratic Alliance party filed a lawsuit to force the South African government to arrest Putin if he attends the BRICS summit.

It is not yet known whether Vladimir Putin will take part in the summit, but it is known that it will be held live.