South Africa court urges government explanation on letting Sudan's Bashir leave
A South African court has given the government seven days to explain the reason behind defying an order to keep Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in the country.
Bashir’s presidential jet flew out of South Africa on Monday, only a day after the Pretoria High Court ruled that the country bar the 71-year-old from leaving.
The temporary ban was issued after the International Criminal Court (ICC) called for his arrest on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur, a region in western Sudan. The Sudanese president denies the allegations against him.
According to an AFP report on Tuesday, the Pretoria High Court ordered the government on Monday to explain why it has violated its obligation to the court and allowed the Sudanese president’s departure despite the ban order.
The South African government said in a statement it would probe the conditions in which Bashir took off from a military base in Pretoria, adding that they will “also comply with the court order relating to submission of an affidavit outlining these circumstances.”
Bashir arrived in South Africa on June 12 to attend the 25th African Union (AU) summit.
On July 12, 2010, the Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir over allegations of genocide committed in the Darfur conflict. An earlier arrest warrant for the Sudanese leader was issued in March 2009 by the ICC for charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The South African government, which is a signatory to the ICC, has been criticized for failure to arrest Bashir, who has mainly chosen countries that have not joined the ICC as his travel destinations since his indictment.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that Bashir’s arrest warrant was “a matter I take extremely seriously and the authority of the ICC must be respected.”
According to the United Nations, the armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced some two million.
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