adminThe International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Bashir and as a signatory to the Rome statute that created The Hague-based world court, Malawi was obligated to detain the Sudanese leader on its soil.
But on October 15 Bashir was among six heads of state attending a meeting of the 19-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) in the tiny landlocked nation and returned home later in the weekend unhindered.
On Monday the court said its pre-trial chamber “decided that the Republic of Malawi failed to co-operate with the court by not arresting and surrendering Omar al-Bashir to the court during his visit to Malawi” in October.
The court “decided to refer the matter to both the United Nations Security Council and the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute”.
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika had previously said that African leaders should not be dragged to the ICC for offences committed in Africa.
In comments submitted to the court Malawi said that customary international law makes an exception for heads of state immunity when international courts seek their arrest for international crimes.
But the court said that its judges “noted that immunity for heads of state before international courts has been rejected time and time again dating all the way back to World War I”. “Giving the examples of international
prosecutions against Slobodan Milosevic, Charles Taylor, Muammar Gaddafi, Omar al-Bashir and Laurent Gbagbo, the chamber noted that initiating international prosecutions against heads of state has gained widespread recognition as accepted practice.” — Sapa.
Online Reporter
Sidumisile Mabena