Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud (born 19 September 1977
) is a Malian who allegedly joined
Ansar Dine
Ansar Dine ( ar, أنصار الدين ''ʾAnṣār ad-Dīn'', also transliterated ''Ançar Deen''; meaning " helpers of the religion" (Islam) also known as Ansar al-Din (abbreviated as AAD) was a Salafi jihadist group led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ans ...
in early 2012 and became an interpreter and administrator of the Islamic police in
Timbuktu
Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou;
Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...
during the
Northern Mali conflict
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Mali War
, partof = the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel and the War on terror
, image = MaliWar.svg
, image_size = 380
, caption = Military situation ...
. , al-Hassan is in the custody of the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...
, for trial on the charges of
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
and
war crimes carried out during 2012 and 2013, including rape and sexual slavery under Article 8 2.(e)(vi) of the
Rome Statute of the ICC.
Northern Mali conflict
Ansar Dine
Ansar Dine ( ar, أنصار الدين ''ʾAnṣār ad-Dīn'', also transliterated ''Ançar Deen''; meaning " helpers of the religion" (Islam) also known as Ansar al-Din (abbreviated as AAD) was a Salafi jihadist group led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ans ...
and
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to ...
(AQMI) held military control over Timbuktu during April 2012 to January 2013. Ansar Dine and AQMI created what they called a religious police force, a morals brigade and an Islamic tribunal, which severely punished locals disobeying the Ansar Dine/AQMI rules, with imprisonment, unfair trials, flogging, torture and the destruction of religious objects.
Al-Hassan allegedly joined Ansar Dine in early 2012 and by May 2012 had become a member of the religious police. Al-Hassan also allegedly cooperated with the Islamic tribunal, knowing, according to the Prosecution at the ICC,
that the tribunal operated unfairly, and participated in carrying out the tribunal's punishments and in the destruction of Muslim mausoleums in Timbuctoo.
Al-Hassan allegedly participated in a program of forced marriages that effectively rendered Timbuktu women and girls as sexual slaves.
ICC case
The Prosecutor of the ICC, in light of her
investigation in Mali, argues that al-Hassan's actions during 2012 and 2013 constitute part of the systematic policy of an organisation against the civilian population of Timbuktu, and that he individually, together with others, via others, and by giving orders or encouragements, is penally responsible for
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
and
war crimes.
Mandate and arrest
The ICC issued a mandate for al-Hassan's arrest on 27 March 2018.
He was surrendered by Mali to the court several days later, arriving in the Netherlands on 31 March 2018.
The case against al-Hassan was described as "groundbreaking" in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' as it included sexual enslavement as a major component of the war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. Melinda Reed of
Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice described the case as "another step in a positive evolution. Every decision matters. We are writing the jurisprudence of the future now, so every case and every step is extremely important with regards to gender-based and sexual crimes."
Trial
On 30 September 2019, ICC judges confirmed the charges against al-Hassan and stated that the trial would proceed.
Al-Hassan's lawyers stated that he was innocent and that the case should be dismissed.
Closing statements were given by both the prosecution and defense on May 25, 2023.
Evidence allegedly obtained through torture
The defence has claimed that trial evidence against Al-Hassan is tainted by his torture in Mali during the time that ICC investigators were interviewing him. ICC personnel commented during his interviews that Al-Hassan's conditions were "like Guantanamo," and Al-Hassan informed prosecutors that beatings and abuse were taking place in his prison. The Trial Chamber denied Al-Hassan's attempt to have the evidence excluded.
According to Georgetown Law professor David Luban, the Trial Chamber "rejected the defense’s request for voir dire on the issues of fact (¶¶17–18), dismissed the reports of the defense’s medical experts (¶48), and granted the Prosecutor’s motion to exclude a defense submission containing a table pairing the Prosecutor’s assertions with 'extracts of evidence which, in the Defence’s submission, purportedly refute those assertions' (¶22)."
Luban concluded: "The Trial Chamber’s decision, in brief: we don’t want to hear about torture or the shadow it casts on evidence. Let the tainted evidence in."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz
1977 births
Living people
People indicted by the International Criminal Court
People from Tombouctou Region
Malian Islamists
War crimes in the Mali War