Sudan's Omar al-Bashir 'had no immunity' in South Africa

BBC News

A South African court has ruled that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir did not have immunity from arrest while attending an African Union summit.

It invited the public prosecutor to investigate if the government had broken the law by letting him leave.

He faced the possibility of arrest due to an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant on genocide charges.

But he flew out of South Africa before the court ruled on whether the warrant should be carried out.

This was despite a court order for Mr Bashir to stay in the country while the court made a decision.

The BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Pretoria says that Judge Dunstan Mlambo suggested there was reason to believe that the South African government had committed a crime by ignoring the court order.

He gave the government 24 hours to explain why and how Mr Bashir was allowed to leave the country.

Judge Mlambo said that South Africa had disregarded international law in order to preserve relations with the African Union (AU).

The AU has urged member states not to cooperate with the ICC, accusing it of bias against Africa.

South Africa's government had argued that Sudan's president had diplomatic immunity because he was attending the AU summit.

However, the ICC had told South African officials that Mr Bashir should be arrested.

South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper has quoted a government source as saying that at a meeting of security ministers it was agreed that South Africa would protect Mr Bashir "even if it meant flouting court rulings and undermining the constitution".

The opposition Democratic Alliance has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the government's actions.

Mr Bashir is accused of arming pro-government Arab militias who targeted black African villages after rebels took up arms in Sudan's western Darfur region.

He denies the charges.

The UN says that about 300,000 people in Sudan have died since fighting began in 2003. More than 1.4 million people are thought to have fled their homes.

The government says these numbers have been exaggerated.