The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court officially called for an arrest warrant on Monday for Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accusing him of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity executed during the past five years of atrocities in the Darfur region of his country.

The prosecutor’s chase of the Sudanese president added supplementary instability to the already hectic circumstances in Darfur. While some diplomats and analysts expressed their concerns regarding the fact that the prosecutor’s actions would destabilize the attempts of promoting peace and providing aid to the millions ousted by violence, others said it offered new strength to compel the Sudanese government to cease the clash in Darfur.

It was the first time the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had accused anyone of genocide. Furthermore, it was also the first time the prosecutor had brought charges against a sitting head of state since the court was founded in 2002. However, two other presidents, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia, were indicted by other international war crimes courts, also while they were state leaders.

When he made his request public, the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said president Bashir had “masterminded and implemented” a strategy to annihilate three major cultural groups in Darfur, the Fur, the Masalit and the Zaghawa. Luis Moreno-Ocampo added that Omar al-Bashir used government soldiers and Arab militias in order to meet his targets and killed approximately 35,000 people in the attacks aimed at the inhabitants of different communities.

At a news conference at the court in The Hague, Argentinean Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he had presented his evidence to the three judges who will conclude whether to issue the arrest warrant. A verdict is expected this autumn, lawyers at the court said.