ICC finds Mali Islamists guilty of crimes in Timbuktu

An Islamist from Mali was found guilty on Wednesday by judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role as the head of Timbuktu’s Islamic police during a rebel takeover in 2012.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz was a key member of the Ansar Dine Islamist organization, which captured the city on the edge of the Sahara Desert in 2012 and attempted to impose sharia Islamic law, according to a summary of the judges’ decision.

Residents in the area stated that he was seen as a crucial figure in the Islamic police force, with the authority to give commands and have police men obey them.

According to Presiding Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, “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.

Although Al Hassan has entered a not guilty plea to all counts, he has not recanted his membership in Ansar Dine. According to his attorneys, he was attempting to keep things under control in the chaotic aftermath of the rebel capture of Timbuktu.

NOT FEELING

Al Hassan, 47, who was wearing a traditional yellow robe and white headdress from West Africa, was found guilty of war crimes including mutilation and taking part in sham trials, as well as religious persecution. He did not display any emotion when the court handed down its verdict.

Al Hassan was accused by the prosecution of several offenses based on gender, claiming that the Islamic police terrorized Timbuktu’s women and subjected them to forced marriages, rape, and sexual slavery. Judges acknowledged that forced marriages and rapes did occur in Timbuktu, but they concluded that Al Hassan was not accountable for these crimes.

After the verdict, prosecutors have 30 days to file an appeal.

Following more hearings, Al Hassan’s sentence will be decided at a later time. The maximum penalty that the ICC can inflict is life in prison.

Fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda from Ansar Dine also broke apart centuries-old shrines and mud tombs in Timbuktu that represented the Sufi interpretation of Islam in the “City of 333 Saints” by using pickaxes, shovels, and hammers. Judges, however, concluded that Al Hassan was not responsible for the devastation and cleared him of all counts pertaining to the assaults.

Iyad Ag Ghaly, also known as Abou Fadl, is the purported head of Ansar Dine; the ICC unveiled an arrest warrant for him last Friday.

In 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC) sentenced an additional Islamist rebel to nine years in prison after the rebel admitted to his role in the demolition of Timbuktu’s holy sites.

Since 2012, the ICC—the only permanent war crimes tribunal in the world—has been looking into what happened in Mali. The next year, French and Mali forces drove the insurgents out.