You can’t leave the country, S. African court tells Bashir
johannesburg — A South African judge on Sunday banned Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir from leaving the country after the International Criminal Court called for him to be arrested at a summit in Johannesburg.
Bashir, who is wanted for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur conflict, mostly travels to countries that have not joined the ICC, but South Africa is a signatory of the court’s statutes.
The ruling was the first time any court has prevented a head of state from leaving a country following a request by the ICC, but Khartoum remained defiant, insisting Bashir would return home.
The Southern African Litigation Centre, a legal rights group, had launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court to force authorities to arrest Bashir on the opening day of the African Union summit. “President Omar Al Bashir of Sudan is prohibited from leaving the Republic of South Africa until the final order is made in this application,” Judge Hans Fabricius said in his ruling.
“The respondents are directed to all necessary steps to prevent him from doing so.”
Despite the arrest calls, Bashir joined a group photograph of leaders at the summit.
Wearing a blue suit, he stood in the front row for the photograph along with South African host President Jacob Zuma and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who is the chair of the 54-member group.
In Khartoum, Sudan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Ismail said Bashir would return home after the main session of the summit. “Until now, things are normal and there is no risk to his excellency the president,” he said at a news conference.
Mugabe has previously urged African leaders to pull out of the ICC, which critics accuse of targeting Africa.
The ICC said in a statement from its headquarters in The Hague that it “calls on South Africa... to spare no effort in ensuring the execution of the arrest warrants” against Bashir. —