ICC convicts Timbuktu jihadist police chief of war crimes

RFI

27 June 2024 at 4:22 am·1-min read

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted a jihadist police chief of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during a reign of terror in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu.

ICC presiding judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua said Al Hassan, 46, played a "key role" overseeing amputations and floggings as police chief when Islamic militants seized control of Timbuktu for almost a year from early 2012.

A timetable for his sentencing has yet to be handed down.

Dressed in a yellow robe and white headdress, Al Hassan sat impassively throughout the nearly two-hour verdict with arms folded.

Al Hassan was also involved in interrogations where torture was used to extract confessions, Mindua said.

Sharia law

Mindua laid out in detail the reign of terror under the militants in Timbuktu, including women being arrested then raped in detention.

"The inhabitants had no other choice but to adapt their lives and lifestyles to conform to the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law ... imposed on them by the force of arms," said Mindua.

Mindua described brutal floggings in the central square in front of crowds including children, as well as a public amputation by machete.

He was however acquitted of the war crimes of rape and sexual slavery, as well as the crime against humanity of forced marriage.

He was also acquitted of the war crime of attacking protected objects.

(with AFP)

Manchester Evening News
Footage shows out-of-control XL Bully being chased by armed cops before being shot dead following horror attack on woman
GMP said the dog had to be destroyed 'as the last possible option'
The Independent
A pair of siblings were stabbed and the sister’s dying words were that the killer was a man from Detroit. Thirty-four years later, he’s been arrested.
Pamela Sumpter, was raped and stabbed, and her brother John Sumpter was stabbed to death, at their Georgia home on July 15, 1990
The Telegraph
A Labour landslide would leave the UK unrecognisable
Until now, Sir Keir Starmer has carefully hidden the Labour Party’s radical, hard-Left agenda from the public. But on the brink of the largest majority in nearly a century, his mask has slipped.
The Telegraph
German woman given harsher sentence than rapist for calling him ‘pig’
A woman in Germany has been given a harsher sentence than a convicted rapist after she was found guilty of defaming him.
The Telegraph
‘This wasn’t a debate, it was a medical emergency’: Our writers give their verdicts
Follow the latest reaction in our live blog
News Shopper
Busy London station CLOSED with major police presence and cordons in place
A busy central London train station has been closed, with a major police presence at the scene.
The Guardian
London Pride: Sadiq Khan leads 32,000 marchers through capital
Annual LBGTQ+ celebration takes place with march between Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square
News Shopper
‘Hero’ London firefighter raped and abused his own kids in ‘house of horrors’
A brother and sister who helped jail their dad Brian Doye decades after he raped and sexually abused them have spoken out.
The Telegraph
Donald Trump is going to turn Starmer’s Britain into an international laughing stock
Grandfather Robert Blackstock, a retired engineer from Nottinghamshire, became the “Brenda from Bristol” of this election campaign when he asked Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer during Wednesday night’s TV debate: “Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country?”
The Telegraph
Did Nigel Farage blow himself up in the BBC Question Time election special? Our writers react
It was finally Nigel Farage’s time to appear before a BBC Question Time audience this evening, more than a week after Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer had theirs. The Reform UK leader took the podium in the same hour as a Green Party representative, Adrian Ramsay. Yet only one of these men has excited reaction from our writers.
The Independent
New Jersey mother says she drowned her children in a bathtub for ‘religious purposes’
Naomi Elkins said she ‘counted to 50 multiple times to ensure she held them underwater for enough time’
Isle of Wight County Press
Boy, 17, arrested after incident at Island holiday park
Police attended reports of a public order incident.
The Telegraph
Labour vote share falls to lowest in more than two years
Labour’s vote share has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years ahead of the general election, new polling shows.
The Telegraph
Labour plan to put middle-class people ‘at back of queue for access to services’
Labour plans to force public bodies to put middle-class people at the back of the queue for taxpayer-funded services including policing, schools and refuse collection, its opponents claim.
Sky News
Police not looking for anyone else after murder investigation into deaths of paramedic and woman
Police say they are not looking for anyone else after a paramedic was found dead along with a woman at a house in Staffordshire. Detectives had opened a murder investigation after the bodies of Daniel Duffield, 24, from Cannock, and Lauren Evans, 22, from Bridgend in South Wales, were discovered in a property in Hednesford, Cannock, at around 12.30pm on Tuesday afternoon. A file is now being prepared for coroners and the families of the two victims are being supported by specialist officers.
Manchester Evening News
Tracy was abducted, doused in petrol and burnt alive. Her killers are still out there
Tracy Mertens, of Rochdale, was 30 when she was abducted, doused in petrol, set on fire and left to die in a churchyard
The Daily Beast
Supreme Court Tells Bannon He’s Gotta Show Up to Jail on Monday
MAGA loyalist Steve Bannon will have to report to jail on Monday after the nation’s highest court declined to indulge his pleas for a last-minute reprieve.Bannon, 70, was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 for contempt of Congress after he blew off a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. He has spent two years since then trying every avenue of appeal, arguing that he was only following the advice of his lawyer, who told him then-President Donald Trump had evoked
Business Insider
A grinding Russian assault appears telling about Putin's plan to defeat Ukraine
ISW's conflict experts warned that the West must "challenge Putin's belief that he can gradually subsume Ukraine."
HuffPost
Critics Clown Trump's 'IDIOTIC' Electric Planes Remarks: 'Dumb As A Box Of Rocks'
"What happens if the sun isn’t shining while you’re up in the air?” the former president asked at a rally in Virginia.
The Telegraph
Driver chains £100,000 Land Rover to tree in bid to stop thieves
A Land Rover owner has chained their car to a tree in London to prevent it being stolen.

Sharia law

Latest stories