Egypt, South Africa support suspension of Sudan’s Bashir indictment
July 29, 2008 (PRETORIA) — Egypt and South Africa said in favour of the suspension of indictment of Sudanese Omer al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki expressed during a joint news conference held in Pretoria on 29 July their rejection of issuing an arrest warrant against the Sudanese president as requested by the ICC’s prosecutor.
“It is not appropriate to take a president to court” said Mubarak adding “We are both making efforts to find a solution and we are trying hard.” While Mbeki said “we support the position that President Mubarak have just expressed, because what is most important with regard to Sudan is to implement the peace agreement between the north and the south and the one on Darfur too”.
The African Union (AU) last week asked the UNSC to invoke article 16 of Rome Statue and suspend any indictment of Sudan’s head of state.
Article 16 of the ICC Statue states that “no investigation or prosecution may be commenced or proceeded with under this Statute for a period of 12 months after the Security Council, in a resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, has requested the Court to that effect; that request may be renewed by the Council under the same conditions”.
Libya and South Africa on Monday submitted a proposal supporting this to the UN. The issue was discussed during a meeting of the UN Security Council related to the renewal of Darfur peacekeeping force. A decision should be adopted on July 31, but the suspension faces opposition.
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges last week to issue arrest warrants for Al-Bashir.
Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.
(ST)