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Sun, July 25, 2010 | Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

The “bottom line” of the second arrest warrant against Al-Bashir (ICC website, July 15, 2010)

Hamas and Hezbollah expressed sympathy with the president of Sudan over the second arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for counts of genocide

Overview

On July 12, 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a second warrant of arrest against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for three counts of genocide. Soon after, Hezbollah and Hamas expressed unequivocal solidarity with the president of Sudan, condemning the international community (mainly the US) and the international system of justice, claiming it serves political elements of world powers.

Hamas’ support for the president of Sudan despite the serious genocide allegations, as well as its harsh statements against the international system of justice, is all the more notable considering Hamas’ worldwide efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel and its leaders. Those efforts include making use of international and country-specific systems of justice to sue Israeli top officials.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir

The arrest warrant

On July 12, the ICC issued a second arrest warrant against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for three counts of genocide committed against three different ethnic groups in Sudan. The counts include: genocide by killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and “deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction”.

Al-Bashir still faces another ICC arrest warrant, which is not revoked by the one issued on July 12. The previous warrant, dated March 4, 2009, was issued against Al-Bashir for five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forced transfer, torture, and rape) and two counts of war crimes (intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities, and pillaging).

The cover page of the arrest warrant against Al-Bashir (ICC webpage, July 15, 2010)

The reaction of Hamas

Speaking at a ceremony naming a street after the shaheeds of the “Freedom Flotilla”, the Hamas de-facto administration chief Isma’il Haniyah said the following:

“Even as the international community remains silent over real crimes and state-sponsored terrorism directed against the Palestinian people in Gaza and those who sympathize with them, [false] allegations are leveled against the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir”.

He further expressed complete solidarity with the Sudanese president (Ma’an, July 14, 2010).

The original Arabic text of the announcement (Ma’an, July 14, 2010)

Haniyah’s speech at the street naming ceremony (Palestine-info, July 15, 2010)

This is not the first time that Hamas has expressed sympathy with Al-Bashir. When the first arrest warrant was issued against him for crimes against humanity and war crimes, Hamas called on Arab countries and the world of Islam to stand up for Al-Bashir and Sudan against the “unfair attack on it”. Hamas declared “unequivocal solidarity” with the president, rejecting the “unfair allegations against him”. According to Hamas, those allegations serve a system of international justice that “reflects the interests of the US and ignores the doings of the true criminals”, i.e., Israel (Aqsaa.com, July 15, 2010).

The reaction of Hezbollah

On July 13, Hezbollah published the following announcement on its website (Al-Intiqad), expressing solidarity with the president of Sudan: “Hezbollah is hereby expressing complete solidarity with Sudan—with its president, its government, and its people—over the new allegations leveled against the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, by the International Criminal Court. Those allegations are a new form of verdicts issued by international elements according to the whims of their superiors, with the purpose of furthering political objectives. Hezbollah condemns the silence of the international legal institutions over the ongoing and escalating Zionist crimes, a silence motivated by the instructions of arrogant countries. Yet those [international legal] institutions act in accordance with political interests in Sudan and in other countries to serve those ruling countries [i.e., the US and Western countries]. This makes those courts biased and unquestionably political” (Al-Intiqad, July 13, 2010).^[1]

Hezbollah’s announcement, as it currently appears on the website (Al-Intiqad, July 15, 2010)

Note:

1 Hezbollah published the announcement on the Arabic version of its website. It is nowhere to be found on the English version.