A South African court has issued a temporary order preventing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from leaving the country on Sunday. Sudanese President is in Johannesburg to attend the African Union (AU) Summit that starts Sunday.
Pretoria High Court Judge Hans Fabricious granted the government a three hour period to prepare arguments in response to an urgent petition that South Africa arrest al-Bashir on the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC), eNCA reported.
Judge Fabricious also ordered the government to prevent Sudanese President from leaving country until the case is heard. He further said that if al-Bashir were able to leave the country, it would result in reputational damage for South Africa, according to Eyewitness News.
The ICC has called on South Africa to arrest Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in western Darfur province, BBC News reported.
Sidiki Kaba, president of the assembly of the parties, said in a statement on Friday that he calls on South Africa to spare no effort in ensuring the execution of the arrest warrants.
"The President expresses his deep concern about the negative consequences for the Court in case of non-execution of the warrants by the State Parties and, in this regard, urges them to respect their obligations to cooperate with the Court," said ICC statement from its headquarters in The Hague.
However, al-Bashir was welcomed by South African officials and Sudanese diplomats on his arrival in Johannesburg. South Africa reportedly argues that this is an African Union event and that they do not have control over who attends it, according to Mail & Guardian.
ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said South Africa was legally obliged to arrest Bashir and that the matter would be reported to the ICC's assembly and the United Nations Security Council if he was not arrested, according to DW.
"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," Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch, said on Friday.
The regional African grouping AU has previously called the ICC to stop proceedings against sitting leaders accusing the court of unfairly targeting Africans.
