The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), on Wednesday urged US competent authorities to arrest Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir and surrender him to the Court, in the event that he enters their territory.
An ICC statement, signed by its spokesperson Fadil Abdallah, and made available to PANA in New York, indicated that the Chamber was informed by the Office of the Prosecutor of President Al-Bashir’s potential travel to the US to attend the 68th UN General Assembly, beginning next week.
It stated: “The Chamber also reminded the US of the two outstanding warrants of arrest issued on 4 March, 2009, and 12 July, 2010, against Omar Al Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
“Subsequently, on 6 March, 2009 and 21 July, 2010, the ICC Registry transmitted requests for the suspect’s arrest and surrender to all United Nations Security Council members that are not States Parties to the Rome Statue, including the United States,” it noted.
The Chamber recalled that non-States Parties may decide to cooperate with the Court on an ad hoc basis.
It said: “The US, as a non-State Party to the Statute, has no obligations vis-a-vis the Court arising from the Statute”.
It also noted that the situation in Darfur was referred to the Court by the UN Security Council.
“However, while recognizing that States not party to the Rome Statute have no obligation under the Statute, we urge all States and concerned regional and other international organisations to cooperate fully with the Court,” the statement added.
PANA reported that both Sudan and US are not signatories to the Rome Statute that created the ICC.
