Sudan president could face genocide charges
International criminal court asks pre-trial chamber to reconsider decision not to charge Omar al-Bashir with genocide
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Wednesday, 03, Feb 2010 05:15
By Matthew Champion.
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir could become the first sitting head of state to be charged with genocide after the international criminal court reversed an earlier decision.
Last March President al-Bashir was charged with five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes over the war in Darfur but the ICC's pre-trial chamber decided not to approve a request for an arrest warrant on genocide charges.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo appealed against the decision three months later, an appeal backed by the ICC's appeals chamber today.
Presiding judge Erkki Kourula said the pre-trial chamber was being "directed to decide anew" as due to an "error of law" it had demanded too high a standard of proof at the arrest warrant stage.
The pre-trial chamber will now rule whether President al-Bashir can be charged with genocide. Professor Moreno-Ocampo claims the Sudanese president, who has moved freely and with impunity through Africa since last year's arrest warrant, wanted to wipe out the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa peoples.
More than 300,000 people are thought to have died in the Darfur conflict, which started in 2003 and came to an inconclusive end late last year.
President al-Bashir is accused of supporting Arab militias - the Janjaweed - in killing thousands of black African Darfuris during the war.
But he has rejected the charges, saying he had no control over the militiamen.