Adnan Syed will have the chance to argue his case in court, a Maryland judge has ruled, in a victory for the man in prison for murder whose story was told by the record-breaking podcast.

Judge Martin P Welch ordered Syed’s case reopened on Friday, after considering his petition to include the testimony and evidence left out of his original trials. Syed was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, while the pair were in high school in Baltimore. The investigation into her murder in 1999 and Syed’s subsequent trial gained national attention in the popular podcast Serial last year.

Going beyond Syed’s simple request to consider his case, Welch ordered an appeals court to consider testimony from Asia McClain, who claimed to have seen him around the time of Lee’s disappearance, but whose account was never brought before the court by Syed’s lawyer at the time. Welch also granted Syed’s petition to include a rediscovered document that casts doubt on cellphone-tower evidence that was critical to the prosecution’s case in 2000.

Syed’s attorney, C Justin Brown, said the court has not yet scheduled a hearing to reopen his client’s post-conviction proceedings. Welch wrote in his order that consideration of McClain’s testimony and the cell-tower document “would be in the interests of justice for all parties” and grounds for reopening proceedings.

“Allowing the parties to supplement the record with relevant testimony and evidence will also provide the court of special appeals with a full and complete record,” Welch wrote, referring to the court that will hear Syed’s case

Brown argued in petitions to the court that McClain’s testimony could have supplied an alibi for Syed, if not for the “ineffective assistance” of his lawyer at the time. He also argued that the prosecution’s case against Syed, which relied on cellphone tower data to place him near the place where Lee’s body was found, was fundamentally undermined by an AT&T cover sheet that warned: “Outgoing calls only are reliable for location status. Any incoming calls will NOT be considered reliable information.”

The proceedings are not a new trial and will be limited to the testimony and cellphone data.

Rabia Chaudry, an attorney and friend of Syed who has campaigned in his support, tweeted that she has been crying in celebration at the news.

“Adnan doesn’t know yet but he’ll find out when he either calls one of us tonight or he’ll see it on the news,” she wrote.

The podcast Serial made a microscopic inquiry of Syed’s case and featured interviews with him and other key figures involved. Many listeners began attempting to parse the inconsistencies in the prosecution and his defense themselves, in an attempt to assess whether Syed stands guilty or not.