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No business as usual as Al-Bashir flees South Africa
No business as usual as Al-Bashir flees South Africa
CICC Global Justice Newsletter, 16 Jun 2015
A South African court’s consideration of a civil society request for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has demonstrated that it is no longer business as usual for fugitives from international justice.
With Al-Bashir in South Africa to attend an African Union (AU) summit, the South African Litigation Center filed a motion in Pretoria’s high court to compel the execution of two ICC arrest warrants for the Sudanese president. The court ordered Al-Bashir to remain in the country pending a ruling on the matter, but he fled before a decision on the arrest motion was issued.
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Alison Smith, international criminal justice director for No Peace Without Justice: “We commend the South African Litigation Centre for bringing this petition. This is really an example of what we as ordinary citizens can do to try to hold our governments to their international commitments. We also commend the South African judicial system: it should not be noteworthy for judges and lawyers to uphold the law, but to do so in the face of almost overwhelming political opposition is a courageous act. We only wish the South African authorities had as much integrity as their countryfolk in the face of this sad state of affairs. If they truly did not want to arrest President al-Bashir, they simply should not have invited him.”