Al Hassan is the second Malian to appear before the International Criminal Court on terrorism charges.
The hearings for the trial of Malian whose full name is Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed, accused of war crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC) came to an end on Thursday May 25, 2023, in The Hague –
The Netherlands.
During the presentation of the oral conclusions of Al-Hassan’s trial, which began on Tuesday May 23, 2023, in one of the halls of the ICC, the Office of the Prosecutor confirmed the charges against Al-Hassan Ag Abdel Aziz Ag
Mohamed.
He is accused of having “personally supervised the application of corporal punishment, amputations and floggings when the city of Timbuktu was under the control of Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, for around a year since early 2012.”
For their part, the victims’ legal representatives have accused Al Hassan of having contributed to the work of the Islamic Tribunal of Timbuktu and participated in the execution of its decisions. He is also accused of having taken part in the destruction of Timbuktu’s mausoleums with the help of the Islamic police, elements of whom
worked directly with him in the field.
He is also alleged to have participated in the implementation of a policy of forced marriage for
the women of Timbuktu, which led to the commission of frequent rapes and the sexual enslavement of women and girls. These charges were rejected outright by Mr. Al-Hassan’s defense.
In turn, the lead lawyer for his defense team, Me Melinda Taylor, confirmed that her client is nothing but a small tin of sardines, as described by a prominent Timbuktu local, who is also one of the prosecutor’s witnesses. Indeed, some say he’s just a “second knife.”
Mr. Al-Hassan’s defense team recounted before the judges of the International Criminal Court the course of events in Timbuktu in 2012, month by month, ruling out that Al-Hassan played any role in the acts of violence, including rape and forced marriage.
The jury of Trial Chamber X, composed of Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua (presiding judge), Tomoko Akane and Kimberly Prost, will deliberate and render, within a reasonable time, its decision on conviction or
acquittal in accordance with article 74 of the Rome Statute.
Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed is the second Malian to appear at The Hague after Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi for their “intentional” participation in the destruction of mausoleums during the outbreak of
the 2012 security crisis.
Convicted and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on September 27, 2016, the latter’s sentence was finally
reduced by two years on November 25, 2021.
He had fully served his sentence by September 18, 2022.
MD/ha/fss/as/APA