{{Lead too short, date=August 2021 State v. Ebrahim is a South African legal case.

State v. Ebrahim, 1991 (2) SALR 553

In ''Ebrahim,'' two men identifying themselves as South African police officers seized a South African member of the military wing of the anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

in December 1986. Ebrahim was bound, gagged, blindfolded, and brought to Pretoria and charged with treason. Swaziland did not protest this abduction. Ebrahim argued that his abduction and rendition violated

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

, and that the trial court was thus incompetent to try him because international law was a part of South African law. Invoking Roman-Dutch common law, the Court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to try a person brought before it from another state by means of state-sponsored abduction. These common law rules embody fundamental legal principles, including "the preservation and promotion of human rights, friendly international relations, and the sound administration of justice." The Court continued: :The individual must be protected from unlawful arrest and abduction, jurisdictional boundaries must not be exceeded, international legal sovereignty must be respected, the legal process must be fair towards those affected by it, and the misuse thereof must be avoided in order to protect and promote the dignity and integrity of the judicial system. This applies equally to the State. When the State is itself party to a dispute, as for example in criminal cases, it must come to court "with clean hands" as it were. When the State is itself involved in an abduction across international borders as in the instant case, its hands cannot be said to be clean. The Court also noted that "the abduction was a violation of the applicable rules of international law, that these rules are part of outh Africanlaw, and that this violation of these rules deprived the trial court competence to hear the matter." In a subsequent civil proceeding, Ebrahim was awarded compensation for the kidnapping.

References

Jeffrey L. Dunoff, Steven R. Ratner, and David Wippman, ''International Law, Norms, Actors, Process: A Problem-oriented Approach''. Aspen Publishers, 2006, 3rd Edition. History of the African National Congress