ICC jails Timbuktu jihadist

The International Criminal Court has sentenced a jihadist police chief to 10 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during a reign of terror in imbuktu in 2012. News24 reports that ICC judges had convicted Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud in June for crimes including torture when he was a member of the feared Ansar Dine Islamic militant group that seized control of Timbuktu. The sentence ‘is proportionate to the gravity of the crimes and the individual circumstances and culpability of Mr Al Hassan,’ said presiding Judge Kimberly Prost. ‘It adequately reflects the strong condemnation by the international community for the crimes committed by him and acknowledges the significant harm and suffering caused to the victims. Among the crimes committed by Al Hassan were ‘cruel treatment as a war crime’ for flogging one person, ‘mutilation’ for amputating a hand, and ‘torture as a crime against humanity and a war crime’.

During the Ansar Dine rule, women were arrested then raped in detention, the court heard. Al Hassan was, however, acquitted in June of the war crimes of rape and sexual slavery, as well as the crime against humanity of forced marriage. Founded between the fifth and 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu is known as the ‘Pearl of the Desert’, but jihadists who swept into the city considered the shrines idolatrous and destroyed them with pickaxes and bulldozers. Al Hassan is the second Malian jihadist suspect to be sentenced by the court in connection with Timbuktu. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the destruction of Timbuktu's shrines. News24 notes that the sentence was later reduced by two years.