Turkey “laughed off” a demand from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest Sudan’s wanted leader when he attended a summit in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on charges of genocide and war crimes, on December 13 attended a summit of Islamic nations called by Erdogan to denounce US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Erdogan tells Turkish reporters that the ICC wrote a letter to Turkey saying it had information Bashir was in Istanbul for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit and he should be arrested and handed over to the court.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, right, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands after al-Bashir presented Turkish leader with his country’s highest medal during a ceremony in Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, Dec. 24, 2017.(Kayhan Ozer/Pool Photo via AP)
“Something like this just makes you laugh,” Erdogan was quoted as saying on his presidential plane as he rounded off a four-day trip to Africa.
“Are we going to just go and hand over to you someone who is a member of the OIC and is taking part in such a summit?” he said. “What kind of understanding is this? It’s impossible to understand it. We just laughed it off.”
There was no immediate confirmation from the ICC, which is currently in recess, that it made such a demand.
— AFP
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