ICC to reconsider al-Bashir genocide charge – Update

ICC to reconsider al-Bashir genocide charge – Update
The Hague/Doha – International Criminal Court (ICC) judges were on Wednesday ordered to review their original decision to exclude charges of genocide against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for his alleged role in the conflict in Darfur. The ruling by the Appeals Chamber of the court followed an appeal lodged by ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo against the court’s decision last year not to include three counts of genocide in its indictment against al-Bashir.
On March 4, 2009, the ICC indicted al-Bashir, 66, on five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes over the conflict between his government and rebels in the region in western Sudan.
At the time, the court rejected the prosecution’s bid to include three charges of genocide, citing lack of evidence.
The Appeals Chamber on Wednesday however ruled that the pre-trial chamber had applied “higher standards of proof than required” by the ICC statute, amounting to “an error of law.”
It was now up to the pre-trial chamber to correct this error and reconsider bringing genocide charges, the Appeals Court said.
The prosecution has implicated the Sudanese leader of murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, rape and pillaging in Darfur, where he is accused of masterminding a counter-insurgency against ethnic groups that oppose his government.
The ICC issued an international arrest warrant for al-Bashir in March last year. The Sudanese leader, who is the first acting head of state to be indicted by the ICC, has ignored the warrant and made numerous trips abroad, mostly to African states that are unlikely to act on the warrant.
On Wednesday, he made an unannounced visit to Qatar, where he was expected to discuss the Darfur conflict.
Qatari diplomats, speaking to the German Press Agency