{"id":519133,"date":"2010-04-07T03:33:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T07:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opiniojuris.org\/?p=11847"},"modified":"2010-04-07T03:33:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T07:33:00","slug":"bashir-was-ready-to-step-down-before-the-arrest-warrant-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519133","title":{"rendered":"Bashir Was Ready to Step Down Before the Arrest Warrant? Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kevin Jon Heller <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s what Rob Crilly claims in an editorial today<\/a> in the Telegraph<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

Before he was indicted, Bashir told regional leaders and his confidantes that he was ready to step down: after 20 years in office, he was ready for a holiday, and retirement to a smart new villa in the north of Khartoum. Now, fearing arrest by a new regime, he has promised his inner circle that he will fight on.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have never heard this claim before, and Crilly provides no support for it.\u00a0 I’m skeptical, particularly given that Crilly is a leading proponent of the “blame the ICC and the NGOs, not Bashir” movement.\u00a0 He describes Bashir in the article, for example, as a “pragmatist” who is not “the monster of popular imagination.”\u00a0 (Apparently, he is just misunderstood by all those mean prosecutors and activists.)\u00a0 But I’m willing to be convinced.<\/p>\n

Anybody out there know whether Crilly’s claim is accurate?<\/p>\n

UPDATE: An intrepid reader contacted Crilly, who replied, “He said it on at least three different occasions. Sources rock solid.”\u00a0 Crilly did not identify the sources, and I remain skeptical.\u00a0 Even if Bashir said it, though, it is difficult to believe that he meant it.\u00a0 If Bashir had communicated a genuine willingness to step down to the ICC, I think it’s safe to say that the OTP would have been willing to not bring charges against him.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 2: Crilly has a short blog post on Bashir’s alleged statement here<\/a>.\u00a0 He says he has been sitting on the information for a while — why, I don’t know.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kevin Jon Heller That’s what Rob Crilly claims in an editorial today in the Telegraph: Before he was indicted, Bashir told regional leaders and his confidantes that he was ready to step down: after 20 years in office, he was ready for a holiday, and retirement to a smart new villa in the north […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}