SCA dismisses government's appeal in Omar al-Bashir matter
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Tuesday ruled that government acted unlawfully when it allowed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to leave the country when he was in Johannesburg attending an AU Summit in 2015.
Al-Bashir was allowed to leave South Africa from the Waterkloof Airforce Base in June after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The SCA dismissed government's appeal with costs.
There was an uproar when Al-Bashir was allowed to leave the country hours after the High Court in Pretoria ruled that the head of state be arrested when he attended the AU Summit.
The SCA said government acted against its own laws as a member if the Rome Statute and that the South African government should have executed the ICC's warrant of arrest.
Al Bashir is still being sought by the ICC for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur in Sudan.
The ICC said evidence showed that Al-Bashir masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups, on account of their ethnicity.
"Members of the three groups, historically influential in Darfur, were challenging the marginalization of the province; they engaged in a rebellion. Al Bashir failed to defeat the armed movements, so he went after the people," it said.
Edited by Marius van der Walt