Recently, in the Bashir case, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC held that requiring, as the Pre-Trial Chamber had done, that the existence of genocidal intent must be the only reasonable conclusion amounts to requiring the Prosecutor to disprove any other reasonable conclusions and to eliminate any reasonable doubt.
According to the Appeals Chamber, if the only reasonable conclusion based on the evidence is the existence of genocidal intent, then it cannot be said that such a finding establishes merely “reasonable grounds to believe”. Rather, it establishes genocidal intent “beyond reasonable doubt”
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Accordingly, the Appeals Chamber found that the standard the Pre-Trial Chamber had developed and applied was higher and more demanding than what is required under Article 58 (1) (a) of the ICC Statute.