Ex-police chief guilty of war crimes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has convicted an al-Qaeda-linked leader of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mali, during a reign of terror between 2012 and 2013 in Timbuktu. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was convicted on charges including torture, rape and sexual slavery, and destroying religious and historic buildings, Al Jazeera reports. He faces up to life imprisonment. Prosecutors said Al Hassan was a key member of Ansar al-Din, an al-Qaeda-linked group that held power in northern Mali in 2012. He was accused of personally overseeing amputations and floggings while serving as police chief during the period when Ansar al-Din – in collaboration with the main Tuareg rebel group in Mali – seized control of Timbuktu for nearly a year. Defence lawyer Melinda Taylor told judges that Al Hassan was a member of the Islamic police force which was ‘obliged’ to respect and execute the decisions of the Islamic tribunal. ‘This is what the police around the world do,’ she said. However, during the trial – which opened in 2020 – prosecutors said Timbuktu citizens had lived in fear of ‘despicable’ violence during Al Hassan’s time. Women and girls suffered in particular under Ansar al-Din’s regime, facing corporal punishment and imprisonment, the court’s then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said. Al Hassan is accused of forcing women and girls to ‘marry’ fighters, with some victims raped multiple times, according to prosecutors, who said he was ‘personally involved’ in flogging women accused of adultery. Al Hassan is the second Malian leader tried at the ICC for destroying religious sanctuaries in Timbuktu, among other crimes.