Court stops Sudanese President from leaving S’Africa

Firstclass newsline gathered that a South African High Court in
Pretoria on Sunday issued an interim order preventing Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir, from leaving the country over alleged war
crime-related charges.
The presiding judge, Justice Hans Fabricius, while postponing the
hearing of the case till Monday (today), urged the South African
authorities to "take all necessary steps" to prevent Bashir from
leaving.
The order was made upon a request by the International Criminal Court
demanding the arrest of Bashir, who was first indicted in 2009. ICC
had accused the Sudanese President of crimes against humanity and
genocide during the Darfur conflict which claimed hundreds of lives
and displaced millions of people.
The United Nations said about 400,000 people died and more than two
million fled their homes since rebels took up arms in 2003.
Al-Bashir, who was sworn in this month for another five-year term, had
arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on Saturday for an African Union
summit, chaired by the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Reuters, the high court has ordered Bashir to stay until
it rules on Monday (today) on whether he should be handed over to the
ICC or not.
However, the legal immunity granted to all African Union delegates by
the South African government has cast a doubt on whether the
President's arrest would be perfected.
ICC relies on police force of member states – of which South Africa is
one – to detain suspects. Nigeria government had declined similar
request in July 2013 when the embattled President visited the country.
Reacting to the development, South Africa's ruling party, the African
National Congress, 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."
Sudan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kamal Ismail, described
the court order as of "no value."
He said, "We contacted South Africa in advance and informed them that
the President would participate and they highly welcomed his
participation. What is being mentioned in the media is a propaganda
campaign against Sudan,"
Al Jazeera reports that the acting international justice director at
New-York based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, Elise Keppler, in a
statement on Friday, said failure by South African government to
arrest Bashir would amount to aiding crimes.
"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," the statement read.
Firstclassnewsline.net