War crimes in Mali: Timbuktu’s jihadist police chief sentenced by the International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has convicted the former chief of the Islamic police in Mali’s historic city of Timbuktu of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors say al-Hassan ag Abdoul Aziz ag Mohamed ag Mahmoud led a “reign of terror” in Timbuktu after the city was overrun by the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar Dine in 2012.

Hassan, who followed the verdict in The Hague, Netherlands, without emotion, was acquitted of the charges of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage of women.

The judges also concluded that he played no role in the destruction of the ancient mausoleums in Timbuktu.

Hassan was handed over to the ICC by Malian authorities in 2018 – five years after French troops helped liberate Timbuktu from jihadists.

Ansar Dine was one of several militant Islamist groups that exploited an ethnic Tuareg uprising to capture towns in northern Mali.

In his role as police chief, Hassan was responsible for punishing the city’s residents, including children, including public amputations and floggings.

“Al Hassan was found guilty by a majority decision of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, cruel treatment and violation of personal dignity, for publicly flogging 13 members of the population (of Timbuktu),” Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“The residents had no choice but to adapt their lives and lifestyles to the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law that was imposed on them by force of arms,” ​​AFP quoted the judge as saying.

He was also involved in interrogations in which torture was used to extract confessions, the judge said.

The prosecution included Dédéou Maiga’s testimony that he was accused of petty theft and arrested by Hassan. He was then publicly tied to a chair and his hand amputated. Maiga died in 2017.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) welcomed the verdict in a statement, but expressed disappointment that Hassan was acquitted of gender-related crimes.

FIDH Secretary General Drissa Traoré said: “This ruling represents an important step for the victims in their quest for justice for the crimes against international law committed in Mali in 2012.”

One survivor told FIDH he was dismayed by the outcome.

“I am partly disappointed by this verdict, which does not take into account the rapes, not to mention the sexual slavery, the suffering that I and other women suffered in Timbuktu with the complicity of Al Hassan,” she said.

Another militant Islamist who destroyed ancient shrines in Timbuktu was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2016.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi admitted leading rebel forces that destroyed historic mausoleums at the World Heritage site in Mali in 2012.

Timbuktu was an important centre of Islamic learning between the 13th and 17th centuries and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988.