NDPP to consider criminal charges over Bashir exit

“The departure of President Bashir from this country in the full awareness of the explicit order of Sunday June 14, objectively viewed, demonstrates non-compliance with that order,” Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said on behalf of a full bench of the North Gauteng High Court which included Judge Aubrey Ledwaba and Judge Hans Fabricius.

“For this reason, we find it prudent to invite the National Director of Public Prosecutions to consider whether criminal proceedings are appropriate.”

Last week, Mlambo said the court wanted an explanation on why Bashir was allowed to leave South Africa on June 15, despite an interim court order barring him from departure issued by Judge Fabricius on June 14.

“We request an affidavit to be filed with the registrar of this court within seven days, disclosing the time when he left, the port of entry or exit that he used,” Judge President Dunstan Mlambo told the South African government’s lawyer William Mokhari.

“It is of concern to this court that it issues orders and then things just happen in violation of those orders. Be that as it may, that is an order we issue under the circumstances.”

The state was expected to file that affidavit by Thursday.

Last week Mlambo said the three presiding judges were of the view that Bashir should have been detained by South African authorities.

Shortly after Mlambo made this ruling, Mokhari said he had been informed by government officials that Bashir, wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) was no longer in South Africa.

“I’ve been informed by the government that they have reliable information that President Al-Bashir departed from the Republic on his way to Sudan,” Mokhari told the court.

“The minister of state security and the minister in the Presidency have informed me that the circumstances of his departure will be fully investigated.”

Earlier that Monday morning, Mokhari told the court that widespread media reports indicating that Bashir had left South Africa were rumours and had “surprised” the government.

Bashir has been indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against some of the tribes of Sudan’s western Darfur region. Two warrants of arrest were issued against him in 2009 and 2010.

As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest him and surrender him to the ICC.

The application before the High Court in Pretoria was brought by an NGO, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, who had sought to compel the South African government to fulfill its obligations to the ICC.

Bashir attended the 25th African Union Summit held in Johannesburg. He was congratulated by AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Sunday night for his election victory at the glamorous heads of state event chaired by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, chairperson of the continental bloc.

Last week, President Jacob Zuma announced the appointment of Advocate Shaun Abrahams as the new NDPP.