Lawyers to seek genocide charge against Sudan's Bashir

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Prosecutors will try to charge Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur after the International Criminal Court (ICC) denied this count in March, prosecutors at the court said on Monday.

The ICC indicted Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and torture and issued an arrest warrant for him in March but said it had insufficient grounds for a charge of genocide.

The court said last week it would allow prosecutors to appeal its ruling.

Prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement they would appeal on or around July 6 against the ICC's decision to exclude the genocide count.

The court, set up in 2002 by international statute, could change its decision if the prosecution could gather additional evidence, the ICC said in March.

Bashir, 65, has dismissed the allegations made by the ICC, the world's first permanent court for prosecuting war crimes, as part of a Western conspiracy.

The ICC warrant was the first issued against a sitting head of state by the Hague-based court for a conflict that United Nations officials say has killed as many as 300,000 people since 2003.

Bashir has refused to deal with the court and has continued to travel to countries which oppose the indictment despite the arrest warrant.