In the Al-Bashir case, South Africa was caught between two conflicting arms of international law: the obligation to execute a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court and the obligation to respect the protocols governing mutual diplomatic relations between South Africa and Sudan.
A lot of abuse has been heaped on the head of the South African government for allowing President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan to leave South Africa on 15 June 2015, whilst a South African court was still considering a complaint from a South African NGO requesting that Al-Bashir should be arrested in execution of a warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Al-Bashir had been attending an African Union (AU) Summit in Cape Town.
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