Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir May Have Left African Summit
Hours after a High Court ordered Omar al-Bashir to stay in SA he has reportedly left the country.
Jean-Jacques Cornish
JOHANNESBURG - Soon after Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman reportedly announced President Omar al-Bashir had left South Africa and was on his way home, there were several claims the Sudanese president was seen in Johannesburg.
There has been no confirmation as yet of Bashir's whereabouts or possible departure from South African authorities, but several reporters covering the African Union Summit said they had seen him at the Sandton Convention Centre this evening.
When contacted around 8pm, International Relations officials said they could not comment on the matter as yet.
Bashir was pictured in his seat at the summit's official opening ceremony at around 6pm. He was seen leaving the chamber at the Sandton Convention Centre around an hour later.
If Bashir has left it is in defiance of a court order that he should stay until Monday's ruling in the Pretoria High Court on whether he can be arrested for genocide in Darfur.
If he has gone, it will leave his South African hosts deeply embarrassed and with some questions to answer about the rule of law.
Earlier on Sunday, highly placed sources told Eyewitness News Bashir planned to leave South Africa overnight despite a court ruling obliging him to stay.
Bashir has evaded two arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2009 for crimes against humanity committed in Sudan.
Jean-Jacques Cornish
JOHANNESBURG - Soon after Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman reportedly announced President Omar al-Bashir had left South Africa and was on his way home, there were several claims the Sudanese president was seen in Johannesburg.
There has been no confirmation as yet of Bashir's whereabouts or possible departure from South African authorities, but several reporters covering the African Union Summit said they had seen him at the Sandton Convention Centre this evening.
When contacted around 8pm, International Relations officials said they could not comment on the matter as yet.
Bashir was pictured in his seat at the summit's official opening ceremony at around 6pm. He was seen leaving the chamber at the Sandton Convention Centre around an hour later.
If Bashir has left it is in defiance of a court order that he should stay until Monday's ruling in the Pretoria High Court on whether he can be arrested for genocide in Darfur.
If he has gone, it will leave his South African hosts deeply embarrassed and with some questions to answer about the rule of law.
Earlier on Sunday, highly placed sources told Eyewitness News Bashir planned to leave South Africa overnight despite a court ruling obliging him to stay.
Bashir has evaded two arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2009 for crimes against humanity committed in Sudan.
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