In the case of a jihadist police chief charged with “unimaginable crimes” during an alleged reign of terror and sexual slavery in the famed Malian city of Timbuktu, the International Criminal Court is set to render a ruling on Wednesday.
The 46-year-old Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, sexual enslavement, and the destruction of historic and sacred structures.
As police chief, prosecutors claim Al Hassan personally oversaw floggings and amputations during the nearly one-year Islamic militant takeover of Timbuktu in early 2012.
During the trial, which opened in 2020, prosecutors said Timbuktu citizens had lived in fear of “despicable” violence, citing the case of a man whose hand was amputated after being accused of petty theft.
“He was tied to a chair… and his hand was chopped off with a machete. A member of the armed group then held up his hand as a signal to others,” said then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
Bensouda claimed that during Al Hassan’s purported reign of terror, Timbuktu’s women and girls suffered the most from the “gender-based persecution” that was in place.
Prosecutors claim that he forced girls and women to “marry” fighters, raping some of the victims more than once.
The prosecution claimed he was “personally involved” in the beating of women who were charged with adultery. According to reports, Islamists beat other women for minor offenses like not donning gloves.
The prosecutor claims that Al Hassan himself admitted to investigators that the inhabitants of Timbuktu were “scared out of their minds”.
