Jordan appeals ICC decision to refer it to Security Council over Bashir visit

AMMAN — Jordan said on Sunday it filed a request appealing a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to refer the country to the UN Security Council for not arresting Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir when he visited the Kingdom earlier this year.

A source told The Jordan Times Sunday that the country appealed the ICC’s decision and ruled out further measures by the country in this regard.

In early December, Jordan said it was studying the decision and that it did not take into account the immunity given to presidents and indicated that it represented “a form of discrimination” against Jordan and 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.

But government official stressed on various occasions that heads of states have immunity according to international law.

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 to 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 the allegations as groundless.