Wednesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) found an al-Qaida-linked extremist leader of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mali guilty. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mahmoud, the extreme, was especially found guilty for mistreating detainees while acting as the de facto head of the Islamic police in the ancient desert city of Timbuktu.
Al Hassan was guilty of torture and inhumane treatment between 2012 and 2013, and sat silently as the decision was announced. Judges kept reading the decision for the several additional offenses he was accused of—rape, torture, persecution, forced marriage, and sexual slavery. Al Hassan faces up to life in jail; the punishment will be decided upon later on.
Al Hassan was named by prosecutors as a prominent member of Ansar Dine, an Islamic extremist group connected to al-Qaida with authority in northern Mali at the time. Women and girls suffered greatly under Ansar Dine’s despotic rule, subject to imprisonment and physical violence. At the beginning of Al Hassan’s trial almost four years ago, Fatou Bensouda, the then-chief prosecutor of the court, underlined these crimes.
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Al Hassan and his faction were ejected from power by a military operation headed by France in 2013. Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has struggled with an insurgency by armed groups including those linked with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group for more than ten years. Following military coups in several countries in recent years, the ruling juntas drove French forces out and turned to Russia’s mercenaries for security aid.
Following a second coup in Mali in 2021, Col. Assimi Goita claimed to lead Mali back to democracy in early 2024. But citing extra technical preparations, the junta permanently canceled elections set for February 2024 in September.
The illness of one of the judges engaged in Al Hassan’s trial caused six months’ delay in the decisions in his case.
