The head of the SPLM-IO armed group Riek Machar has praised South Africa’s government for defying a court order to hand over Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying that the government was right to consider Bashir ‘immune’ from an ICC arrest warrant.
Bashir took off from the Waterkloof Air Force base on Monday morning, just hours before the High Court in Pretoria ruled that he be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he is wanted on charges including war crimes and genocide.
Bashir’s departure violated an interim court order issued urgently by the Pretoria High Court on Sunday to prevent Bashir from leaving the country. The surprise order from the court came shortly after Bashir arrived in South Africa to attend a summit of the African Union and sideline meetings of the East African regional bloc IGAD.
In an interview with South Africa’s Eyewitness news in Johannesburg, Machar said, “The action taken by government of South Africa from our viewpoint was correct, because IGAD summits are always held in one of the African countries and IGAD summits are supposed to be attended by all heads of state and government.”
“Bashir was invited to South Africa and as a head of state. For him to be arrested here would just complicate relations between Sudan and South Africa. So that action taken by the government of South Africa I think is absolutely correct,” Machar said.
File photo: Riek Machar (left) with Omar al Bashir