Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz was convicted in June of battle crimes and crimes towards humanity throughout the 2012-13 interval when Ansar al-Din dominated Timbuktu.
The Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC) has sentenced a key member of a Malian armed group to 10 years in jail for battle crimes and crimes towards humanity dedicated greater than a decade in the past within the metropolis of Timbuktu.
Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz was convicted in June on prices together with torture, rape and sexual slavery, in addition to destroying non secular and historic buildings, whereas serving as police chief after the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Din group seized management of Timbuktu in 2012 for almost a 12 months.
Presiding Choose Kimberly Prost dominated on Wednesday that the 47-year-old contributed to the Ansar al-Dine rule, whose actions had a “traumatic impact on the inhabitants of Timbuktu”.
The individuals “lived in an environment of concern, violence, oppression, [and] humiliation” and that interval “stays current within the minds of victims in a deep-seated trauma”, she mentioned.
The sentence “is proportionate to the gravity of the crimes and the person circumstances and culpability of Mr Al Hassan”, she added.
“It adequately displays the sturdy condemnation by the worldwide group for the crimes dedicated by him and acknowledges the numerous hurt and struggling induced to the victims,” Prost continued.
Clad in all-white conventional West African robes along with his head wrapped in a turban, Al Hassan confirmed no emotion after the decide learn his sentence. However he listened intently along with his fingers folded in his lap.
He was later led away by ICC safety guards.
Among the many crimes dedicated by Al Hassan had been “merciless therapy as a battle crime” for flogging one individual, “mutilation” for amputating a hand, and “torture as a criminal offense towards humanity and a battle crime”.
The Hague-based court docket additionally heard that throughout the Ansar al-Dine rule, ladies had been arrested then raped in detention.
There have been additionally brutal floggings within the central sq. in entrance of crowds together with youngsters, in addition to a public amputation by machete.
Al Hassan was, nevertheless, acquitted in June of the battle crimes of rape and sexual slavery, in addition to the crime towards humanity of pressured marriage.
Though the court docket dominated that sure crimes of sexual violence had taken place throughout the interval, he was not discovered to bear accountability for them.
