South Africa loses appeal over failure to arrest Bashir

South Africa’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the government against a ruling that the state had made an error in letting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir leave the country despite a court order barring him from doing so. Bashir, who was in South Africa for an African Union summit last June, was allowed […]

South Africa’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the government against a ruling that the state had made an error in letting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir leave the country despite a court order barring him from doing so.
Bashir, who was in South Africa for an African Union summit last June, was allowed to go even though the court had issued an order banning him from leaving until the end of a hearing on whether he should be detained under a global arrest warrant.
The court said he should have been arrested to face genocide charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) because as an ICC signatory, Pretoria is obliged to implement arrest warrants.
The government had asked the court to overturn the ruling, with its lawyers arguing that a gazzette notice granted diplomatic immunity to all delegates at the summit.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said the failure to arrest Bashir “was inconsistent with South Africa’s obligations in terms of the Rome Statute”.