A South African court yesterday granted an interim order to prevent Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from leaving the country, until it hears an application calling for his arrest, the Star reports. The President was attending an African Union summit.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in 2009, accusing Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Darfur. He denies the charges.
An application reportedly lodged by a human rights group was set to be heard in the Pretoria High Court at 3pm local time yesterday to decide whether Bashir should be arrested, but the court later said it would make a ruling today. It ordered that Bashir remain in South Africa until today, when it delivers its ruling.
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The judge said the court will decide whether a South African government Cabinet decision to host Bashir would trump the ICC arrest warrant. The Pretoria High Court said in a statement it was “compelling respondents to prevent President Omar al-Bashir from the leaving the country until an order is made in this Court.”
Bashir boarded a flight on Saturday to Johannesburg to head Sudan’s delegation at the summit, which started on Sunday, presidential sources and the state-owned Sudan News Agency said. The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that Bashir was later “welcomed by South African officials and Sudanese diplomats on his arrival in the country.”
South Africa is a member of the ICC, which does not have its own police force and relies on member states to detain suspects. Since the arrest warrant was issued, most of Bashir’s trips abroad have been to non-ICC states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. But he has also been to member states that have declined to arrest him, such as Nigeria, which hosted him in July 2013.
“Allowing President al-Bashir into South Africa without arresting him would be a major stain on South Africa’s reputation on promoting justice for grave crimes,” Elise Keppler, acting international justice director at New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Friday.
A South African government spokesman declined to comment.
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