Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir seen during the 'Family photograph' taken at the AU Summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, 14 June 2015.
JOHANNESBURG –Sudan President Omar al-Bashir left the country on Monday, as the state battled it out in the North Gauteng High Court with SA Litigation Centre lawyer seeking to have the head of state arrested.
State lawyer William Mokhari,"We have reliable information that Bashir has departed."
Earlier the state had said Bashir was not on the list of passengers for a Sudanese plane that left Waterkloof Air Force Monday afternoon.
Just seconds before we received confirmation that Bashir had left the building, Judge Dustan Mlambo said that SA was legally bound to arrest Bashir.
Judge Dunstan Mlambo said, “We will hand down an order and reasons will follow in a week. It is declared by court that conduct by respondents that they have failed to arrest Bashir is inconsistent with constitution of SA.”
“Must take reasonable steps to arrest Bashir without a warrant and detain him pending formal request for his surrender from ICC,” he added.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal court, (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity over atrocities committed in the Darfur conflict.
He arrived in South Africa on Saturday along with other African leaders for the 25th African Union heads of state and government summit.
Speaking at the North Gauteng High Court on Monday, SA Litigation Centre lawyer, Caroline James, said that if Bashir has in fact fled the country, the organisation will take further action against the South African government.
“We desperately hope that’s not true. We would hate the fact that South African government officials have acted in direct contravention of the court order that was issued in this court yesterday."
"It would be a very sad day for South Africa if we get confirmation our departments of home affairs as well as other government respondents in this case have acted contract to an order of court from their own country.”
OmarAlBashir Mokhari interjects... He confirms what we all already knew... Bashir has departed from the Republic of South Africa.
— Nickolaus Bauer (@NickolausBauer) June 15, 2015 OmarAlBashir 10 seconds after a court orders SA govt to arrest Bashir, govt confirms he&39;s already fled.
— Nickolaus Bauer (@NickolausBauer) June 15, 2015 I hope the High Court will come down hard on the officials who allowed AlBashir to leave SA. They should be imprisoned!
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) June 15, 2015 The SA Govt should be ashamed itself: it has shown no respect for our justice/court system. The court order was infringed. AlBashir
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) June 15, 2015 AlBashir Mlambo indicates that the court order was breached in one way or another. BB
— Barry Bateman (@barrybateman) June 15, 2015 The timeline of events today shows clearly a good old-fashioned stitch up AlBashir @eNCA
— Ben Said (@BenSaid1) June 15, 2015 By aiding AlBashir exit,SA govt is inadvertently siding w/ those it spent decades opposing in the pursuit of freedom,dignity & human rights
— Friederike Bubenzer (@FBubenzer) June 15, 2015 OmarAlBashir Mokhari: The minister of state security has confirmed an investigation will be conducted into how Bashir left the country
— Nickolaus Bauer (@NickolausBauer) June 15, 2015 
