Release Date: 16th June, 2015 

The Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (NCICC) commends the South African Court in Pretoria for issuing an interim order to prevent Sudanese President Omar Al – Bashir from leaving South Africa until he decides whether to order the government to arrest him on war crimes charges.

This action of the High Court Judge is highly commendable and should be emulated by other African Courts.  It should be recalled that in 2013, when President Omar al Bashir came to Abuja to attend a conference of the African Union Commission on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, NCICC applied to the court in Abuja for a similar order to enforce the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court on Al-Bashir.  Although the application for the warrant was not heard before Al-Bashir left Nigeria, NCICC has continued to pursue the case in order to secure a provisional warrant of arrest that could be executed anytime he enters into Nigerian territory in future.

NCICC therefore calls on the South African government and other African governments especially those that are state parties to the Rome Statute to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in ensuring that any person indicted by the ICC who enters the territories of State parties is arrested and handed over to the ICC prosecutors.

Signed

 

Chino Obiagwu

Chair, NCICC Steering Committee

 

Onyinye Oguamah

NCICC Coordinator

For: Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court