The International Criminal Court in the Hague has ruled that it can investigate Burma for the alleged deportation of the Rohingya Muslim minority to Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity.

The unprecedented ruling paves the way for Fatou Bensouda, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, to further examine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case, exposing the country’s leadership to future sanction.

The decision comes a week after an independent probe by United Nations investigators called for the investigation and prosecution of Burma’s top military generals, including Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief, for genocide.

The report also accused Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s civilian leader and former human rights heroine, of failing to use her “moral authority” to prevent the brutal military violence that prompted more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

In deciding to proceed with its own case, the Hague-based court used the cross-border nature of the mass exodus to bypass the challenge that Burma is not an ICC-signatory. Bangladesh, which sheltered the influx of refugees last year, is a party to the Rome statute that governs the court.

A pre-trial chamber determined that although the “coercive acts underlying the alleged deportation” of the Rohingya occurred on Burmese territory, an “element of this crime..occurred on the territory of Bangladesh.”