ICC sentences Malian jihadist leader to ten years in prison for war crimes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday, November 20, sentenced to ten years' imprisonment a jihadist, former head of the Islamic police in Timbuktu, Mali, convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, known as “Al Hassan”, a 47-year-old Malian, was declared by the ICC last June guilty in particular of torture, mutilation, illegal trials and religious persecution. This sentence is “proportional to the seriousness of the crimes and the individual circumstances as well as the culpability of Mr. Al Hassan”said Judge Kimberly Prost. “It adequately reflects the strong condemnation of the international community for the crimes he committed and recognizes the considerable harm and suffering caused to the victims”she added.

Dressed in a traditional West African white robe, his head wrapped in a turban, Al Hassan listened attentively, his hands crossed in his lap. He showed no emotion after the judge read the sentence.

Acquitted of war crimes of rape

Among the crimes Al Hassan faced were: “cruel treatment as a war crime” for flogging an individual, “mutilation” for amputating a hand, and “torture as a crime against humanity and a war crime.” “.

According to Kimberly Prost, Al Hassan contributed to the regime of the jihadist group Ansar Eddine, whose actions had a “traumatic effect on the population of Timbuktu”Who “lived in an atmosphere of fear, violence, oppression, humiliation”.

Al Hassan was a member of Ansar Eddine, which took control of Timbuktu for almost a year starting in April 2012. During this period, women were arrested and then raped in detention. Floggings took place in the central square, in front of a crowd including children. A man accused of theft had his hand amputated with a machete, also in public, in September 2012.

Al Hassan was, however, acquitted of the war crimes of rape, sexual slavery and attacks on protected property, as well as the crime against humanity relating to forced marriage. Although the ICC ruled that crimes of sexual violence took place during this period, Al Hassan was not found responsible.

Destruction of sanctuaries

Under the jihadist yoke, destruction increased in 2012 and 2013 in Timbuktu, founded between the V^e and the XII^e century by the Tuareg tribes and nicknamed “the city of 333 saints” for the number of Muslim sages who are buried there.

The Islamists of Ansar Eddine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) controlled the city from April 2012 until its liberation by French and Malian forces in January 2013. The Islamists destroyed it with pickaxes. and excavator of famous mausoleums of Muslim saints of Timbuktu, nicknamed “the Pearl of the desert”.

Al Hassan was arrested by the Malian authorities and handed over to the ICC in March 2018. He is the second Malian jihadist tried by the Court. In 2016, the ICC sentenced Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi to nine years in prison – before reducing his sentence by two years on appeal in 2021 – for the destruction of the sanctuaries of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site. humanity.

Furthermore, in June the ICC made public an arrest warrant against one of the main jihadist leaders of the Sahel, for war crimes and crimes against humanity also alleged to have been committed, mainly, in Timbuktu. This man, Iyad Ag Ghaly, heads the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), linked to Al-Qaeda, which operates in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Radicalized Tuareg rebel leader, also known as “Abou Fadl”, he founded the Ansar Eddine group in 2012.