Delay in response to ICC is a thinly veiled attempt to allow Al-Bashir back
The Government’s failure to meet the deadline to submit an explanation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on why they allowed the President of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, to leave South Africa is a thinly veiled attempt to allow Al-Bashir back into South Africa in December to attend the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit (FOCAC).
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) stated that “South Africa has now approached the Court for more time to respond to this request. This was done in view of the complex and conflicting legal principles involved, both in international and in South African domestic law, and the fact that the South African domestic courts are still seized -with the matter.”
South Africa will now have to approach the Secretariat of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute, the political body of the ICC, when it meets in November to discuss “immunities of serving Heads of State and Government of States which are not parties to the Rome Statute, like Sudan.”
The South African Government also tweeted yesterday that “AU invited Heads of State & Government of all AU Member States, including President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan, to attend the Summit”, signalling clearly that they fully intend to yet again break the law and host Al-Bashir for the FOCAC summit.