Pretoria | Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has gone home, but he left behind a welter of legal confusion and finger-pointing this week as authorities try to sort out who authorized his departure after the High Court here ordered him held as a potential war criminal sought by the International Criminal Court.
The episode marred the country’s hosting of a major summit of the African Union over the weekend and raised questions as far away as Washington about the commitment of South African President Jacob Zuma’s government to the international treaties that it signs.
Speaking from the High Court bench, Judge Dunstan Mlambo said the South African government was in breach of a legal order and had broken the country’s constitution which requires the executive to obey the judiciary.
For his part, Mr. al-Bashir, indicted by the ICC for his role in the brutal suppression of a rebellion in Sudan’s Darfur region, landed Monday to the cheers of supporters at an airport in Khartoum, waving a stick in the air as he exited his private jet, The Associated Press reported. His name had not been on the passenger list when it left a military air base near Pretoria, as required under South African law.
At the Khartoum airport, supporters of the president raised posters reading “Lion of Africa” scribbled next to a picture of Mr. al-Bashir in military uniform and carried a coffin with a white sheet wrapped around it reading: “The ICC to its last resting place,” the AP reported.
The fracas began Sunday when it became clear Mr. Zuma’s government intended to ignore a request from The Hague-based ICC to honor a 2009 warrant for the arrest of Mr. al-Bashir, the first sitting leader ever indicted by the ICC. The African Union summit was chaired by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe who has himself been accused of murder, torture and a series of rigged elections. Both Mr. Mugabe and Mr. al-Bashir are barred from entering the United States because of their record on human rights.
A local advocacy group, the Southern Africa Litigation Center (SALC) obtained an order from the High Court to prevent the Sudanese president from leaving the country, pending application for his arrest.
On Sunday, the State Department in Washington also called on South Africa to “provide justice for the victims of these heinous crimes” and turn Mr. al-Bashir over to the ICC for judgment
Judge Mlambo said the South African government’s failure to arrest Mr. al-Bashir left it in breach of South Africa’s own criminal procedure act.
“It is of concern to this court that it issues orders and that things just happen in violation of these orders,” he said.
Representing the government in court, advocate William Mokhari confirmed Mr. al-Bashir had left around noon local time on Monday.
In 2012, Mr. al-Bashir was threatened with arrest in Malawi after he signaled his plan to attend a conference in that country. The summit was eventually canceled.
Diplomats attending the African Union meeting Monday agreed it was unlikely Mr. al-Bashir would visit South Africa again. The precedent of a local court ordering the arrest of a sitting head of state could also make it difficult for him to travel elsewhere.
ICC Deputy Prosecutor James Stewart told The Associated Press in The Hague that “in our view it was very clear” that South Africa should have detained Mr. al-Bashir because of the outstanding indictment.
“Their obligation was to arrest President al-Bashir,” Mr. Stewart said.
Human Rights Watch and other civil groups were also quick to condemn the South African government’s decision to allow Mr. al-Bashir to attend the international gathering and then to shield him from the court’s arrest order.
“By disregarding a court order secured by the Southern Africa Litigation Center not to permit President Bashir to leave the country, the government ignored its international obligations and facilitated impunity of African leaders who commit crimes against humanity,” said Vukasin Petrovic, director of Africa programs for Washington-based Freedom House.
But Robert Mugabe, longtime president of Zimbabwe and current chairman of the African Union, was dismissive of the attempt to detail the Sudanese leader.
The African News Agency, which is based in South Africa, quoted Mr. Mugabe as saying at the late-night close of an African Union summit in Johannesburg that the International Criminal Court is not wanted in Africa.
“This is not the headquarters of the ICC; we don’t want it in this region at all,” said Mr. Mugabe, who is chairing the 54-member AU for one year.
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