Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 28
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
Turkey rejected the demand of the International Criminal Court to arrest and extradite Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir during his visit to Istanbul to attend the Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, the country’s media reported Dec. 28.
He added that during the recent OIC Summit in Istanbul on Jerusalem, the International Criminal Court sent a letter demanding to arrest the Sudanese president and extradite him to the court.
“Since Turkey is not a member of this international organization, we simply ignored the appeal,” Erdogan said.
On March 4, 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on charges of genocide in connection with the conflict in Darfur region of Sudan, where ethnic cleansing was allegedly carried out. Al-Bashir became the first sitting president to be indicted by the International Criminal Court. The decision of the International Criminal Court was criticized by member countries of the League of Arab States, the African Union and the Non-Aligned Movement, which refused to implement it.