[Al Arabiya Latest] Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday reversed a decision that prosecutors had not provided sufficient evidence to charge Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide.The Hague-based court's pre-trial chamber will now have to rule on whether to add genocide to Bashir's charge sheet, which already includes seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, extermination, torture and rape.
"The pre-trial chamber is directed to decide anew," presiding judge Erkki Kourula said, upholding an appeal by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Darfur's most powerful rebel group welcomed the ICC decision to open the door to genocide charges against Sudan's president, saying they would now reconsider taking part in peace talks.
"This is a correct decision," said the chief negotiator for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Ahmed Tugud. "We believe that what we have seen on the ground in Darfur amounts to a crime of genocide."
"Now we are assessing our situation on whether it is ethically possible to negotiate with a government accused of committing genocidal crimes against our people."
Tugod spoke by phone from Doha, where JEM has been holding on-off discussions with Khartoum which were supposed to pave the way to full peace talks.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Beshir in March last year on five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes committed in Sudan's western Darfur region -- its first-ever warrant for a sitting head of state.
Moreno-Ocampo, having implicated the Sudanese leader in the deaths of 35,000 people, subsequently lodged an appeal against the court's decision not to include the three counts of genocide he had asked for.
Bashir refuses to recognize the court's jurisdiction and has embarked on a mass media campaign portraying him as the strong leader standing against Western intervention.
The United Nations estimates some 300,000 lives were lost in the humanitarian crisis sparked by Sudan's counter-insurgency. Khartoum puts the toll at 10,000.
Bashir is running in Africa's largest country's first democratic elections in 24 years in April.