The state has lost its appeal against a High Court ruling, that its failure to arrest Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, was inconsistent with its constitutional duties.
Appeals Court judge Carole Lewis said that this failure to arrest Al-Bashir when he was in South Africa last June, was inconsistent with the law and South Africa's obligations under the Rome Statue.
The SA Litigation Centre approached the courts then for an order to force the government to arrest Al-Bashir in terms of a warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court.
The ICC wants to try Al-Bashir for war crimes in Sudan's southern province of Darfur.
Angela Mudukuti of the SA Litigation Centre says today's Appeal Court ruling upholds an important principle that South Africa had a domestic and international duty to arrest Al-Bashir.
She spoke to Algoa FM News shortly after judgement was delivered.
"We will have to see what the State decides to do, if they decide to proceed the matter further and take it on appeal to the Constitutional Court for example. We will have to wait and see what happens there. We of course are ready if they decide to proceed the matter, from a factual perspective, obviously President Al-Bashir has left the country so there is nothing that can be done in that regard, but it may prevent him from coming back to South-Africa, which I think is an important point, that South Africa is not a safe haven for perpetrators of international crimes. That is an important message to deliver" she said
