Jordan may face UN action over visit of Sudan president Omar Al Bashir
The Jordanian government is reviewing a decision by the International Criminal Court to refer Jordan to the UN Security Council for failing to arrest Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir when he visited the country this year.
Mohammad Al Kayed, spokesman for the foreign ministry, said the ICC decision “discriminates against Jordan” and “is based on loopholes”.
He said: “It does not take into account the fact that the Sudanese president enjoys immunity under international law.”
Mr Al Bashir attended an Arab League summit in Jordan in March – the first time that a person wanted by the ICC had entered the country.
The court issued arrest warrants for Mr Al Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for his role in alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of genocide committed between 2003 and 2008.
As a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, Jordan is legally required to co-operate with the court in arresting and transferring indicted people.
In March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Jordan to either refuse Mr Al Bashir entry or arrest him and said the country would be going against its international obligation as a member of the court if it allowed Mr Al Bashir into the country without such action.
“Welcoming an ICC fugitive would undermine the Jordanian government’s recent efforts to strengthen the country’s rule of law,” said Elise Keppler, associate international justice director at HRW.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, also criticised Jordan.
“All states must abide by their treaty obligations. I very much regret that Jordan, a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, received the president of Sudan, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued,” he said.
“By doing so, it is failing the ICC and weakening the struggle against impunity, and for justice.”
The ICC’s decision to report Jordan to the UN sparked criticism and conspiracy theories. One of them is that the ICC’s move was prompted by anger in Jordan as a reaction to the US’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Zaki Bani Irshaid, secretary general of the Islamic Action Front, said the move was suspicious.