Bashir issue out of order in parliament

EFFORTS to raise the matter of Sudan President Omar alBashir being allowed to leave South Africa in defiance of the high court failed in parliament yesterday when NCOP chairwoman Thandi Modise ruled a question on the matter out of order.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was taking questions in the National Council of Provinces when DA MP Jacques Julius tried to raise the matter.

Julius asked Ramaphosa how he would use his position as the government ’ s representative on issues affecting Sudan and South Sudan to deal with those who were in contempt of South African high court orders.

Modise understood him to mean the way al-Bashir was allowed to leave despite the North Gauteng High Court ordering that he may not do so until the court had ruled fully on whether the country, having signed and ratified the Treaty of Rome, was obligated to arrest him while he is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court on allegations of gross human rights violations.

Modise ruled any discussion of the matter out of order because the matter was still before the North Gauteng High Court and thus was considered sub judice.

On Monday, the High Court in Pretoria ruled that failure to detain al-Bashir by the government was inconsistent with the constitution, and he should have been detained pending a formal request from the ICC.

Al-Bashir was in the country over the weekend to attend the African Union Summit and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said President Jacob Zuma had given al-Bashir an assurance that he would not be arrested if he attended the meeting.

The Southern African Litigation Centre made an urgent application on Sunday asking the court to force government to arrest alBashir. But when the matter was being heard in court on Monday, he left the country.

Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, along with judges Aubrey Ledwaba and Hans Fabricius, will read their reasons for the ruling into the court record next week.