ICC: Judges allow genocide charge against Sudanese leader

— CNN reports: ” Judges at the International Criminal Court ruled Wednesday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir may be charged with genocide for his role in a five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan’s Darfur region.”
— “Al-Bashir, who remains in office, has already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had the genocide charge on his original arrest warrant for al-Bashir, but the pre-trial judges left off the charge when they approved the warrant last March.”
— “The appeals judges said the pre-trial chamber had applied an ‘erroneous standard of proof’ to the genocide charge.”
— “The judges said they were not ruling on whether al-Bashir should be charged with genocide — only whether the charge could be added to the arrest warrant. They said it will be up to the pre-trial chamber to determine whether to add the charge to the warrant, which could take several weeks.”
— “The International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, is a permanent, treaty-based tribunal dealing with the most serious crimes against humanity.”

Omar Al-Bashir (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)