The International Criminal Court (CPI) found Malian jihadist Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz “guilty” of several war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution on religious grounds, mutilation, torture and cruel treatment as a member of Ansar al Din, a terrorist group associated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, president of the ICC Trial Chamberread this Wednesday the court’s decision against Al Hassan, which was delivered to the Court in 2018.
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“He has been found guilty of a majority of war crimes and It hurts humanityincluding torture, cruel treatment and attacks on personal dignity due to the public flogging of thirteen members of the population. in Timbuktuhe added Mindua.
Member of Ansar al Din, Al Hassan, 46 years old, is accused of being the de facto head of the Islamic police established by jihadist militants and being involved in the work of an Islamic court in Timbuktu, between April 1, 2012 and January 28, 2013.
The CPI found him guilty of acts of torture, attacks on personal dignity, cruel treatment and other inhuman actspersecution, mutilation and “imposition of sentences without prior trial pronounced by a regularly constituted court that provides all the judicial guarantees generally recognized as indispensable.”
But he absolved him of crimes of attacks against protected targets, forced marriage, sexual slavery and rape. He CPI stressed that these crimes of sexual violence have taken place in Timbuktu in the period of the events, but did not consider that Al Hassan was responsible for them.
The judge warned during the reading of the sentence that “although Al Hassan worked for a group that claimed to be enforcing Islamic Sharia“This trial is not about Sharia, nor about the Muslim religion in general.”but about acts and behaviors in a specific context.
“After being recruited by senior leaders of AQIM, Al Hassan He became a senior official in the Islamic Police, where he took on a leadership role that included organizing police work. Islamic Police played a crucial role in the system that Ansar Dine/AQIM established to commit the crimes,” the court added.
He also considered that Al Hassan participated in the work of Islamic Court writing and signing police reports, participating in the transfer of accused and executing the judgments and sentences issued by that “court”.
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Al Hassan faces life imprisonment due to the severity of the crimes that are charged against him, although the sentence will be known later.
Al Hassan He listened to the verdict sitting in court, looking serious, arms crossed and wearing headphones. He appeared dressed in a long yellow garment and a white tagelmust covering his head, an outfit typical male of the Tuareg Berbers.
The trial began in July 2020 and ended in May of last year, with the testimony of 52 witnesses who have appeared called by the Prosecutor’s Office and 22 by the Defense. The case represented 2,196 confirmed victims.
The trial of Al Hassan is the second of the CPI to a Malian jihadist for the crimes of Ansar al Din.
In 2021, Ahmad Al Mahdi Al Faqi was sentenced to a reduced sentence of seven years in prison for ordering the destruction of world Heritage of the UNESCO in Timbuktu.
The terrorist group’s court requested the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque, a pilgrimage site of the local population.
In January 2012 it started in Mali an armed conflict during which Timbuktu was under the control of several terrorist groups that destroyed cultural treasures such as the famous library.
