President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rowed back on Monday from saying Brazil would ignore a war crimes arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, while saying he would review Brazil's membership in the International Criminal Court, Reuters reports.
On Saturday, while in India for a Group of 20 nations meeting, Lula told a local interviewer that there was "no way" Putin would be arrested if he attended next year's summit, which is due to be held in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which obliges members to comply with its arrest warrants. The court issued a warrant for Putin's arrest in March, accusing him of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
Russia has denied its forces have engaged in war crimes or forcibly taken Ukrainian children.
Putin has yet to travel abroad since the ICC sought his arrest, notably missing a summit of the BRICS group in South Africa last month as well as this month's G20 summit in India. He also skipped the G20 summit in Bali last year.
"If Putin decides to join (next year's summit), it is the judiciary's power to decide (on a possible arrest) and not my government," Lula said at a press conference on Monday, rowing back from his earlier remarks.
He would review why Brazil had signed up to the ICC treaty, he said: "I want to know why the U.S, India and China didn't sign the ICC treaty and why our country signed it."
Lula's earlier comments that Putin would not be arrested had drawn criticism in Brazil.
