Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should be arrested if he sets foot in South Africa for the African Union summit, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.

The party said it was urging national police commissioner Riah Phiyega to display the political will to uphold the law and signal that South Africa took allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes very seriously.

“South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the ICC. As a member of the ICC, South Africa is duty bound to arrest him as soon as he sets foot in our country,” said DA spokesperson on international relations Stevens Mokgalapa.

Neither the department of international relations nor the media relations team for the summit could confirm whether Bashir was indeed expected to travel to South Africa.

Bashir is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009 after indicting him for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

Earlier this week, the Johannesburg-based human rights organisation Southern Africa Litigation Centre said it was trying to verify information that he would attend the summit, and planned to seek a court order obliging the police to arrest him if he did.

“We are receiving information from various sources that Bashir is due to arrive in SA on Saturday. We are trying to confirm information and will prepare an urgent application to have him arrested, “ said Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, the executive director of the centre.

As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest Bashir if he sets foot in this country and have twice before threatened to do that – when Bashir was expected in the country for President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration in 2009 and for the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

However, the summit presents a different situation as it is a meeting of the AU which has invited Bashir and all other African leaders except Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic as it is under suspension from the AU because of a violent overthrow of the government in 2013.

Furthermore, the AU in 2013 adopted an official policy which requires its member states not to cooperate with the ICC as it is regarded as biased against Africa since all its indictments to date have been against African individuals, including Bashir and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.