Sweden's Supreme Court gave the go-ahead Thursday for a Swiss former executive of Swedish group Lundin Oil to go on trial for alleged war crimes in Sudan in 1999-2003.
Alex Schneiter, a vice president at Lundin Oil, was charged last year with Sweden's Ian Lundin, chief executive from 1998-2002 and chairman of the family firm until it was sold to Norway's Aker earlier this year.
But 60-year-old Swiss citizen Schneiter went to Sweden's highest court arguing that Sweden's principle of universal jurisdiction did not apply to him as he was neither a resident nor a citizen.
The Supreme Court rejected his case, ruling that "some form of connection to Sweden" was necessary for an indictment and that Schneiter's connection "in other regards" was "sufficient".
Schneiter and Lundin have been under investigation since 2010.
They are accused of having been complicit in war crimes committed by Sudan's then regime in order to secure oil operations in southern Sudan.
After Lundin struck oil in the "Block 5A" field in 1999, the Sudanese military, together with an allied militia, "led offensive military operations to take control of the area and create the necessary preconditions for Lundin Oil's oil exploration," Sweden's prosecution service said.
This included aerial bombardments, abducting, plundering and killing of civilians, and burning entire villages -- violence the prosecution said constituted war crimes.
The two were complicit because Lundin Oil asked Sudan to put the military in charge of security operations, knowing that it would take control of Block 5A by force, the prosecution said.
Lundin Oil did so "despite understanding, or in any case being indifferent to, the military and the militia carrying out the war in a way that was forbidden according to international humanitarian law."
Block 5A is located in what is today South Sudan, following independence in 2011.
The prosecution has also demanded the confiscation of 1.4 billion kronor ($128 million), equivalent to the profit the company made on the sale of its Sudan operations in 2003.
A Lundin company spokesman last year said the investigation was "unfounded and fundamentally flawed", maintaining that the company "did nothing wrong" and there was "no evidence linking any representatives of Lundin" to the alleged crimes.
The trial is expected to take place in Stockholm, but no date has been set yet.
Schneiter and Lundin risk life sentences.