Al Hassan was convicted on charges including torture, rape and destruction of religious buildings.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted a leader linked to Al-Qaeda for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mali, during an alleged reign of terror between 2012 and 2013 in the city of Timbuktu.
Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, 46, was convicted on Wednesday on charges including torture, rape and sexual slavery, as well as destruction of religious and historic buildings.
He faces life in prison when the sentence is handed down later.
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 supervising 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, took control of Timbuktu for almost a year.
Defense lawyer Melinda Taylor told the judges that Al Hassan was a member of the Islamic police force who was “obliged” to respect and carry out the rulings of the Islamic court.
“This is what police all over the world do,” she said.
However, during the trial, which began in 2020, prosecutors said Timbuktu’s citizens lived in fear of the “despicable” violence during Al Hassan’s time.
Women and girls suffered especially under Ansar al-Din’s rule, facing corporal punishment and imprisonment, the court’s then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said at the start of Al Hassan’s trial nearly four years ago.
Al Hassan is accused of forcing women and girls to “marry” fighters, with some victims being raped multiple times, according to prosecutors, who said he was “personally involved” in the flogging of women accused of adultery.
In Timbuktu, victims of Ansar al-Din’s crimes await possible compensation.
“We are waiting and waiting for a trial that will give us justice,” said Yehia Hamma Cisse, president of a group of victims’ associations in the Timbuktu region.
Al Hassan is the second Malian leader tried at the ICC for destroying religious shrines in Timbuktu, among other crimes. Timbuktu is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
The Hague-based court sentenced Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi in 2016 to nine years in prison, reduced by two years upon appeal in 2021.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
