South African Government Loses Appeal Over Failure to Arrest Al-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 during African Union summit last June.
Bashir was allowed out of South Africa 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 ICC has issued a warrant for Bashir on charges of masterminding genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. Bashir denies the charges.

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 government's failure to arrest Bashir "was inconsistent with South Africa's obligations in terms of the Rome Statute...and unlawful".

The ruling means that Bashir and others facing global arrest warrants for crimes against humanity would be arrested if they set foot in South Africa. In addition, the High Court had said previously that the National Prosecuting Authority should consider whether to take action against the government for letting Bashir leave the country.