SA appears before ICC over al-Bashir case, denies breaking rules

South Africa on Friday denied flouting international law in 2015 by failing to arrest visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for trial by war crimes judges on charges of genocide in Darfur.

At an unprecedented hearing at the International Criminal Court, Pretoria disputed accusations it had broken its obligations to the very tribunal it helped found.

There “was no duty under international law on South Africa to arrest the serving head of a non-state party such as Mr Omar al-Bashir,” Pretoria’s legal advisor Dire Tladi argued.

Despite two international arrest warrants issued in 2009 and 2010, Bashir remains at large and in office amid the raging conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

He has denied the ICC’s charges, including three accusations of genocide as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The deadly conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority groups took up arms against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government, which launched a brutal counter-insurgency.

The UN Security Council asked the ICC in 2005 to investigate the crimes in Darfur, where at least 300 000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced, according to UN figures.

Pretoria, which had sought legal clarification from ICC judges before Bashir’s 2015 visit, argues that the Sudanese leader has immunity as a head of state.

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