President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Saturday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be arrested in Brazil if he attends the Group of 20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro next year.
In an interview with Firstpost news outlet during the G20 summit in New Delhi, Lula said Putin would be invited to next year’s event, adding that he himself plans to attend a meeting of the Brics, a bloc of developing countries development, in Russia before the Rio meeting.
“I believe Putin can easily go to Brazil,” Lula said. “What I can tell you is that if I am president of Brazil and he comes to Brazil, there is no chance that he will be arrested.”
In March the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin, charging him with the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia has denied that its forces engaged in war crimes or forcibly took Ukrainian children.
Putin has repeatedly missed international meetings and was not present at the G20 meeting in New Delhi, sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov there.
Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which led to the founding of the ICC. Lula’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, G20 countries adopted a consensus statement that avoids condemning Russia for the war in Ukraine but calls on all states not to use force to seize territory.
Source: Terra
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