NEWS OTP Activities
OTP Briefing Issue #144 1-15 July 2013 NEWS Pre-Trial Chamber II requests Nigeria to arrest Omar Al Bashir 15 July - Pre-Trial Chamber II requested the Federal Republic of Nigeria to immediately arrest Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, on visit to Abuja (Nigeria) for an African Union summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and to surrender him to the ICC. The Sudanese President’s visit to Nigeria has raised a lot of criticism among rights groups. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for Nigeria to prevent Bashir to attend the Abuja summit or to stop it if it went there, while the president of the Nigeria Coalition on the International Criminal Court, Chino Obiagwu, said that the Nigerian government “has violated its obligations under international law”. The Chamber recalled that, as signatories to the ICC, Nigeria and several other African countries are expected, under their treaty obligations, to actually arrest the Sudanese President if he sets foot on their soil. The Nigeria presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said "The Sudanese president came for an AU event and the AU has taken a position on the ICC arrest order, so Nigeria has not taken action different from the AU stand". Nevertheless, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, had briefed the Nigerian press that over 30 African Heads of State would be participating at the conference, stating that she was not reported to have specifically listed the names of the heads of state and presidents expected at the meeting, nor was she reported to have specifically mentioned the name of the controversial Sudanese president.
[Show full text]