The South African High Court in Pretoria has demanded to know from a lawyer of the South African government whether the government complied with its order to prevent President Omar al Bashir from leaving the country.

Judge Hans Fabricius issued an interim order to border authorities in the Department of Home Affairs to prevent Bashir leaving South Africa until he had delivered his judgement on whether or not Bashir should be arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide.

In a televised court hearing before noon on Monday in South Africa, a judge of the three-member High Court reqested to know from government lawyer William Mokhari whether the government complied with its interim order.

Advocate Mukare responded that the government has complied with the judge's order to notify security officials at the borders not to allow Bashir to leave the country, but he could not confirm that border officials at all ports of entry had received the order.

“I'm told that it has been complied with especially in so far as paragraph two of that order is concerned which required the Director General of the Department of Home Affairs to [notify] officials at each point of entry in the Republic,” said the government lawyer.

He added, “This court still has juridiction to deal with the matter.”

Mokhari was asked directly by the presiding judge whether Bashir was still in the country. “To the best of our knowledge as the government, he is in the country,” said Advocate Mukare

In subsequent remarks, Government Advocate Mokhari also asked the court to 'stand down' until 2:00 p.m., but his request was not granted. The Court instead decided to adjourn for only an hour. Judges before making this decision appeared to have consulted among each other about whether to issue another follow-up order regarding the ports of exit.

The presiding judge further said that Advocate Mukare must respond after the hour-long recess about border authorities that have reportedly been unresponsive to the Court's interim order yesterday and have not yet confirmed receipt of the order.