MADRID: A Spanish judge Thursday upheld genocide charges against 11 Moroccan ex-officials accused of atrocities in Western Sahara, a court ruling showed -- a penultimate step towards a possible trial.

Judge Pablo Ruz upheld accusations against the 11 ex-security officials and governors of ethnically motivated torture, killings and detentions in the former Spanish colony between 1975 and 1991, the ruling said.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015