International Criminal Court judges have reversed a ruling that there is insufficient proof to charge Sudan’s president with genocide in Darfur.
A warrant was issued last year against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The Hague court’s pre-trial chamber will now have to rule on whether to add genocide to the charge sheet.
The UN says 300,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict since 2003.
The ruling that was reversed on Wednesday had said there was not enough evidence to believe Mr Bashir’s government had intended to destroy the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
If genocide charges are now brought, they will be the first to be issued by the ICC against a sitting head of state.
African and Arab leaders have rallied around Mr Bashir and several nations have refused to honour the existing warrant.
‘Two-speed’ justice
“The pre-trial chamber is directed to decide anew,” presiding judge Erkki Kourula said, upholding the appeal lodged by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Judge Kourola said the previous ruling had set the standard of evidence too high.
“The decision by the pre-trial chamber not to issue a warrant in the respect of the charge of genocide was materially affected by an error of law,” he said in court.
He stressed that the appeals court was not itself ruling that Mr Bashir was criminally responsible for the crime of genocide.
Mr Bashir has avoided arrest thanks to support from other leaders. Since the warrant was issued he has visited Qatar, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe among other nations, and the African Union has consistently supported him.
The AU’s most senior diplomat, Jean Ping, hit out at the ICC in the run-up to its decision, accusing the court of targeting African nations.
“We are not for a justice with two speeds, a double standard justice – one for the poor, one for the rich,” he said.
Mr Bashir’s government is accused of backing Arab militias who killed thousands of black African Darfuris.
Mr Bashir has repeatedly said he had no control over the actions of people on the ground in Darfur at the height of the violence in 2003 and 2004.
