Sudanese president defies court order, leaves S’Africa

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
| credits: File copy

The Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, left South Africa on Monday, defying a court order, which mandated him to remain in the country.

Justice Hans Fabricius of the Pretoria High Court, South Africa, had on Sunday, while adjourning hearing of the application for al-Bashir’s arrest till Monday, ruled that the Sudanese president should be prevented from leaving South Africa.

The news of al-Bashir’s exit broke while the court was in session on Monday to decide on the petition filed by a rights group, The Southern African Litigation Centre, seeking order for President Jacob Zuma’s government to arrest al-Bashir and hand him over to the International Criminal Court.

Sudanese information minister, Ahmed Osman, however, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the embattled President had flown out of Johannesburg, where he had arrived on Saturday for an African Union summit.

Osman said al-Bashir would land in Khartoum, Sudan by 6.30pm, adding that he was able to evade arrest on the strength of the immunity granted to all AU delegates by the South African government.

“Yes, he has left. South Africa had always agreed not to arrest the President while he was in the country for the African Union summit. President al-Bashir is not a prisoner inside Sudan. The President was due to land back in Khartoum at about 6:30pm local time (15:30 GMT),” he said.

South Africa, being a party to the ICC statue, was obliged to arrest the President. The court had issued an arrest warrant on al-Bashir since he was indicted in 2009 for genocide crime during the Darfur conflict, which claimed hundreds of lives.

The United Nations said about 400,000 people died during the Dafur crisis while more than two million had fled their homes since rebels took up arms in 2003.

The South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, had in a statement on Sunday, accused the Hague-based ICC of applying Western justice to hunt Africans.

“The ANC holds the view that the International Criminal Court is no longer useful for the purposes for which it was intended. Countries, mainly in Africa and Eastern Europe, continue to unjustifiably bear the brunt of the decisions of the ICC, with Sudan being the latest example,” the statement read.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, told Reuters that the move to arrest al-Bashir was a decision that needed to be implemented.

“The ICC’s warrant for the arrest of President al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes is a matter I take extremely seriously. The authority of the ICC must be respected and its decision implemented,” Ban said.