‘Sudan leader Al-Bashir must rot in jail’, says Julius Malema

SOUTH Africa’s opposition EFF leader Julius Malema says his party will persuade other African states to make an about-turn on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, ensuring he “rots in jail”.

Malema was speaking at his party’s Youth Day commemoration in Limpopo.

Al-Bashir flew out of South Africa on Monday before the North Gauteng High Court ruled that he should be arrested on the warrant issued by the ICC.

As an ICC signatory, South Africa was obliged to implement arrest warrants.

Al-Bashir is accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide during the Darfur conflict.

Malema said they did not endorse the “plot” to arrest Al-Bashir here because it was an instruction from an imperialist organisation.

However, Malema said Bashir had to be prosecuted by a “fair justice system”, just not the ICC.

“We are saying al-Bashir must rot in jail, he must be prosecuted for his sins, but he must be subjected to a proper justice system,” said Malema.

“The ICC is not such a justice system which can give a fair hearing to an African leader. We need institutions which are going to deal with problems,”

He told his supporters that should the EFF be victorious at the polls, it would lobby other countries to endorse that Al-Bashir be prosecuted in an African court.

“Bashir must know that when we come to power in South Africa we are going to persuade Africa to prompt his prosecution.

“We don’t support dictators, we don’t support murderers,” he said.

He said the ICC and its managers were not interested in African peace and stability. source-newzimbabwe