Judges at the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic have rejected a motion to drop genocide charges against him, in a decision published Wednesday.
The decision - a big boost to the prosecution's case - comes just a day before the judges were to meet the parties to discuss Milosevic's defence case, scheduled to start on July 5.
Lawyers appointed by the UN war crimes court to ensure that Milosevic gets a fair trial had filed the motion to drop the genocide charge, the gravest of war crimes, in March. If granted, the request would have left him accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Milosevic has been on trial before the tribunal since February 2002 on more than 60 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his alleged key role in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.
For the war in Bosnia, which left more than 200,000 dead, he faces a separate charge of genocide before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
In their decision the judges rejected the lawyers' claims that there was not enough evidence to support a genocide charge.