The ICC gives a Mali Islamist 10 years in prison for violence in Timbuktu

The International Criminal Court (ICC) gave a Malian Islamist 10 years in prison on Wednesday for his role in running the police force that brought sharia law to Timbuktu after rebels took over the city in 2012.

Judges said that 47-year-old Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz was a key member of the Islamic police force set up by the Ansar Dine Islamist group in the city on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

The judges said that he had done or been a part of many public floggings that hurt people deeply on a mental level.

“This regime and these acts had a traumatic effect of the population of Timbuktu,” they noted.

Al Hassan told the judge at the beginning of his case in 2020 that he was innocent. He was dressed in all white and wore a traditional West African robe and crown. He wasn’t upset when the sentence was read.

Al Hassan was found guilty of many crimes against humanity and war crimes in July of this year. These crimes included torture and harassment.

Since March 2018, he has been in the ICC’s holding center. The more than six years he has already spent there will be taken away from his sentence. So he shouldn’t have to stay in jail for too much longer. The ICC often lets people go after serving more than two-thirds of their term.