It would be criminal for Zambia to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Africa should not allow a few criminal elements to manipulate the continent from leaving the international court, an opposition leader said on Tuesday.

Nason Msoni, leader of the All People's Congress (APC) party said Zambia should not act under the influence of mob psychology with other African countries to withdraw from the ICC without making a clear case for doing so.

"A few criminal elements in the African Union who are potential indictees themselves to the ICC should not be allowed to manipulate and use innocent clean hands of incompetent political novices by bribery and influence to coerce and encourage them to hastily pull out their respective countries from the ICC in order to serve their own skins," he told Xinhua.

The African Union (AU) at its annual summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last month adopted a strategy calling for a collective withdrawal from the ICC, although the move is non-binding.

On Monday President Edgar Lungu said his government was critically studying the AU resolution and would consult people on the country's membership to the ICC.

Lungu said the ruling party's Central committee tabled the matter at its recent sitting and agreed that national dialogue should precede any decision in response to the AU's call.

According to Msoni, Africa has no courts with the necessary jurisdiction and capacity to deal with criminals charged with crimes against humanity, adding that withdrawing from the ICC would give impunity to African leaders to abuse their positions.

"Arguably withdrawing from the ICC is endorsing lawlessness and encouraging impunity of regimes on their own citizens. In other words withdrawing effectively means that leaders will never uphold and observe the rule of law," he added.

The ICC is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands and is the court of last resort for prosecution of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Some countries have accused the court of only pursuing African leaders. Late last year, South Africa, Burundi and The Gambia announced plans to leave the court.

Source: Xinhua