Bashir had travelled to Johannesburg for an African Union summit that was overshadowed by the global Criminal Court (ICC) calling for him to be detained on long-standing arrest warrants over the Darfur conflict.
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Johannesburg: Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Tuesday that some of the most powerful nations’ refusal to comply with the global Criminal Court had created an environment for South Africa to allow Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir into, and out of, the country.
The South African government and African Union made no immediate comment on Bashir’s exit or the court order, which was obtained by the Southern African Litigation Centre, a legal rights group.
The judge’s hearing on the case is due to resume at 0930 GMT on Monday.
However, some sources within the South African government argued that it would have been unthinkable for the South African government to have invited President Omar Al-Bashir to their country and then gone on and arrested him.
The President arrived at the Khartoum airport at around 6:50pm Sudan time. If some leaders can fail to honor a global Criminal Court what of an African court.
“This is an indication that South Africa doesn’t believe in the rule of law and justice for grave global crimes”, he asserted.
The ICC’S chief deputy-prosecutor James Stewart told AFP on Monday that South Africa’s failure to arrest Al Bashir was “disappointing”.
South Africa has been under fire for not arresting al-Bashir in defiance of the ICC’s arrest warrant.
Recently, in the face of such criticism and the absence of cooperation from the AU, the ICC has opened investigations in a handful of other countries – but most in Eastern Europe and other developing country regions.
Mugabe said in court “not all judges think like we do”, and they might dislike “freedom fighters” or the way things are done in a certain country, he said. “It had an obligation to arrest him”.
It follows reports claiming that Sudanese soldiers surrounded South African National Defense Force soldiers in Sudan.
“By allowing this shameful flight, the South African government has disregarded not only its global legal obligations, but its own courts”, she said in a statement.
The ICC indicted Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for his role in atrocities in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, in which 300,000 people were killed and two million displaced in the government’s campaign, according to U.N. figures.
Sudan’s government had defended the visit by Mr. Bashir, who was sworn in this month for another five-year term, and said the court order had “no value”.
Bashir’s plane left a South African military airport near Pretoria, the capital, unhindered by South African authorities who had already been ordered over the weekend by South Africa’s High Court to prevent him from departing.
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