ICC refers Jordan to Security Council for failure to arrest Sudan’s Bashir

AMMAN — As the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday it would refer Jordan to the UN Security Council for not arresting Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir when he visited the Kingdom earlier this year, the government said Monday it was looking into all legal and political options to deal with the decision.

The Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Mohammad Kayed said the government was studying the decision and that it did not take into account the immunity given to presidents, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The decision was a form of discrimination against Jordan, he added, claiming that it had legal loopholes.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010 over his alleged role in war crimes including genocide in Sudan's Darfur province. 

Jordan, as a member of the ICC, is obliged to carry out its arrest warrants, Reuters reported on Monday.

A source, who preferred not to be named, said Jordan did not receive anything officially from the ICC.

"Presidents have immunity according to international law," the source told The Jordan Times on Monday, adding that "the Arab League charter stipulates that we invite all presidents," the source added.

In March this year, Bashir attended the 28th Arab summit that was held on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea. He was invited by Jordan for the annual gathering of Arab leaders. Jordan then announced its abidance of the Arab Charter regarding the attendance of the Arab summit.

Sudan is not a member of the Hague-based permanent international war crimes court, and the ICC therefore does not have automatic jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes there, according to
Reuters.

However, the UN Security Council referred the case to the international court in March 2005. The Security Council has the power to impose sanctions for a failure to cooperate with the ICC, but has so far not acted on court referrals.

Bashir is accused by ICC prosecutors of five counts of crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, forcible transfer torture and rape, as well as two counts of war crimes for attacking civilians and pillaging. He faces three counts of genocide allegedly committed against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Darfur, Sudan, from 2003 to 2008. Sudan rejected such allegations as groundless.