President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has backed down from his promise that President Vladimir Putin will not be arrested if he goes to Brazil next year for the G20 summit and said that it will be up to the courts to determine the Russian’s arrest.
Lula is in India for the G20 summit and on Sunday (10) took over the rotating presidency of the group in a symbolic ceremony. At a press conference on Monday morning, early in Brazil, the president was asked about Putin’s possible presence at next year’s G20 summit, to be held in Rio de Janeiro – the Russian leader is the target of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which Brazil is a member.
“If Putin decides to go to Brazil, it’s up to the courts to decide whether or not to arrest him, not the government or the National Congress,” he said.
On Saturday, Lula had said in an interview with the Indian website Firstnews that Putin “could easily go” to Brazil. “If I’m president of Brazil, and if he [Putin] comes to Brazil, there’s no way he can be arrested. Nobody is going to disrespect Brazil,” he said at the time.
In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against the Russian leader for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The high court argues that he is likely responsible for the illegal deportation of children from Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine, since he allegedly failed to exercise adequate control over his civilian and military subordinates.
Read more in Folha de S. Paulo
