Chapter 4
Cooperation with and assistence to Court in or outside South Africa

Part 1
Cooperation with court: arrest of persons and their surrender to court (ss 8-13)

9 Provisional warrants of arrest

(1) Where the Central Authority receives a request from the Court for the provisional arrest of a person who is suspected or accused of having committed a crime contemplated in the Statute or who has been convicted by the Court, the Central Authority must immediately forward the request to the National Director to apply for a warrant of arrest for that person.

(2) On an application by the National Director, or a person designated by him or her, stating under oath or affirmation that he or she has reason to believe that-

(a) the request of the Court has been made on grounds of urgency for the arrest of a person who is suspected or accused of having committed a crime contemplated in the Statute or who has been convicted by the Court;

(b) a warrant of arrest or a judgment of conviction against the person in question exists;

(c) a formal request for the surrender of the person to the Court will be made later;

(d) the person concerned is in or on his or her way to the Republic; and

(e) the purpose of the arrest is to bring the person concerned before the Court or to take him or her to a place where he or she is to undergo imprisonment under a sentence of the Court, as the case may be,

a magistrate may issue a warrant for the arrest of that person and notify the Central Authority that a warrant has been issued.

(3) Any warrant endorsed in terms of section 8 or issued in terms of subsection (2) must be in the form and executed in a manner as near as possible to what may be prescribed in respect of warrants of arrest in general by or under the laws of the Republic relating to criminal procedure.

Article 92
Provisional arrest
1. In urgent cases, the Court may request the provisional arrest of the person sought, pending presentation of the request for surrender and the documents supporting the request as specified in article 91.
2. The request for provisional arrest shall be made by any medium capable of delivering a written record and shall contain:
(a) Information describing the person sought, sufficient to identify the person, and information as to that person's probable location;
(b) A concise statement of the crimes for which the person's arrest is sought and of the facts which are alleged to constitute those crimes, including, where possible, the date and location of the crime;
(c) A statement of the existence of a warrant of arrest or a judgement of conviction against the person sought; and
(d) A statement that a request for surrender of the person sought will follow.
3. A person who is provisionally arrested may be released from custody if the requested State has not received the request for surrender and the documents supporting the request as specified in article 91 within the time limits specified in the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. However, the person may consent to surrender before the expiration of this period if permitted by the law of the requested State. In such a case, the requested State shall proceed to surrender the person to the Court as soon as possible.
4. The fact that the person sought has been released from custody pursuant to paragraph 3 shall not prejudice the subsequent arrest and surrender of that person if the request for surrender and the documents supporting the request are delivered at a later date.