The International Criminal Court (ICC) has convicted al-Hassan ag Abdoul Aziz ag Mohamed ag Mahmoud, the former head of the Islamic police in Mali’s. In the historic city of Timbuktu, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors accused Hassan of leading a “reign of terror” in Timbuktu after it was overrun in 2012 by the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine group. He was a senior member of the Islamic police, recruited by al-Qaeda leaders.
Hassan, who remained emotionless as the verdict was read out in The Hague, Netherlands, was acquitted on charges linked to rape, sexual slavery, and imposing forced marriages on women. The ICC noted that 2,196 victims participated in the trial proceedings, with 7,896 documents recorded and 13,275 items of evidence submitted over 195 hearings.
Hassan was handed over to the ICC in 2018 by Malian authorities, five years after French troops helped liberate Timbuktu from the jihadists. Ansar Dine was one of several Islamist militant groups that exploited an ethnic Tuareg uprising to take over cities in northern Mali.
As police chief, Hassan oversaw punishments such as public amputations and the flogging of residents, including children.
“Al Hassan has been found guilty by majority decision of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, cruel treatment, and outrages upon personal dignity, for the public flogging of 13 members of the population of Timbuktu,” Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua stated, according to Reuters.
“The inhabitants had no other choice but to adapt their lives and lifestyles to conform to the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law imposed on them by the force of arms,” Judge Mindua added, as reported by AFP.
Hassan was also involved in interrogations where torture was used to extract confessions, the judge noted. The prosecution case included testimony from Dédéou Maiga, who was accused of petty theft and arrested by Hassan. He was tied to a chair in public, and his hand was amputated and died in 2017.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) welcomed the judgment but expressed disappointment that Hassan was acquitted of the gender-based crimes.
“This verdict represents an important step for the victims in their quest for justice in relation to international crimes committed in Mali in 2012,” said FIDH Secretary General Drissa Traoré.
One survivor expressed dismay at the outcome. “I am partly disappointed by this verdict which does not take into account the rapes, let alone the sexual slavery, the suffering that I and other women in Timbuktu have suffered with the complicity of Al Hassan,” she said.
In a related case, another Islamist militant leader, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, was sentenced to nine years in jail in 2016 for destroying ancient shrines in Timbuktu. Mahdi admitted to leading rebel forces that destroyed historic mausoleums at the World Heritage site in 2012.