“Justice will be done one day. Not man’s justice, but God’s.”
The words of O. Ascofaré, a craftswoman in Timbuktu and a victim of sexual violence, sum up the despair and helplessness that the survivors of the 2012 jihadist occupation of northern Mali feel more than a decade after their ordeal.
Many of the survivors are still grappling with the trauma that not even the sentencing of one of their torturers at the International Criminal Court (ICC) can relieve.
The June 2024 verdict in the case against Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, 47, the former head of the Islamic police, which rained terror in the region, seems to have prepared the victims for disappointment in his sentencing on November 20, 2024. And they were not surprised that Al Hassan got only 10 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity; after all, several charges, especially those related to sexual violence, had been earlier dismissed by the trial judges as they handed down the verdict.
But the grief and anger among the victims remain fresh, and are reflected in Ascofaré’s harrowing account of the night her shop was raided in 2012 and she and her sister were attacked.
“The patrolling rebels raided my shop and took away all my goods. At night, four of them came to our home. I was with my older sister. They ordered us to cover our faces. My sister was slapped on the face and knocked to the ground when she failed to obey. I was also hit and lost a tooth.”
“When my sister tried to flee, two of the miscreants chased her and raped her in an unfinished house. The other two grabbed me and dragged me into the courtyard as I bled from the mouth. They abused me. All this happened in front of our parents, who watched helplessly. My family and I have lived with this pain and shock ever since,” she said.
Timbuktu, once the vibrant heart of West Africa’s culture and learning, bore witness to atrocities that left deep scars on its people during the 2012 jihadist occupation between May 2012 and January 2013. The court found that Al Hassan played a pivotal role in the system established by the armed groups Ansar Dine and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) during that terrible time.
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As a senior member of the Islamic Police, he organised police work and participated in the operations of the Islamic Court. He wrote, signed, and transferred accused persons to the court, and implemented its judgments and sentences.
“This regime and acts had a traumatic effect on the population of Timbuktu, which lived in an atmosphere of fear, violence, oppression and humiliation, and remains present in the mind of victims as a deep-seated trauma,” presiding judge Kimberly Prost told The Hague-based court while delivering the sentence.
The victims targeted by Ansar Dine and AQIM largely included vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly. They further imposed restrictions that “had a specific and disproportionate impact on female members of the Timbuktu population. This affected their ability to work and earn money and they lived in fear of arrest and punishment which as expressed “could happen whatever they did to respect the rules and prohibitions.”
Although Judge Prost acknowledged the deep trauma caused by Al Hassan’s actions as a leader of the Islamic police, she explained that the court considered the gravity of the crimes, his role, and mitigating factors, such as his minor assistance to civilians and cooperation during the investigation.
She noted that the 10-year jail term “is proportionate to the gravity of the crimes and the individual circumstances and culpability of Mr Al Hassan.”
“It adequately reflects the strong condemnation by the international community for the crimes committed by him and acknowledges the significant harm and suffering caused to the victims,” Judge Prost added.
The 10-year sentence will be reduced by six-and-a-half years, the time Al Hassan has already spent in ICC custody since 2018. That leaves only 3.5 years, which, to many human rights organisations and victims, makes Judge Prost’s statement ring hollow.
‘No earthly justice will ease our pain’
This turn of events seems even more unfair for M. Maïga, a housewife at Hamed Baba’s Centre in Timbuktu and a victim, cementing her conviction that no earthly justice will ease the pain.
She recalls the horrors of a bloody attack on the population of Timbuktu during Ramadan in 2012.
“Shells fell in front of our house, injuring many people. Everybody was running for their lives. I was thrown down by the force and the explosions and suffered a spinal injury,” Maïga told a Journalists For Justice (JFJ) correspondent during an interview in Timbuktu.
“I was first admitted to a hospital in the city. While my mother sat by my bedside, another shell hit the hospital courtyard, causing panic among patients, nurses, and relatives. My mother got injured and remained in a coma for about 10 days before she passed away,” she explained.
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Maïga was then transferred to a clinic in Bamako, far away from her family where she spent months, paying the medical bills from her pocket. She never received any compensation from the state of Mali or any structure or organisation.
“This ‘cafre’ [infidel], like his accomplices, deserves to be killed or sentenced to life imprisonment. We cannot wait for justice. These executioners deserve hell. No earthly justice will ease our pain,” Maïga insisted.
Like Maïga, victims of gendered violence hold a similar thought. Al Hassan was acquitted of these charges. The court found that although the crimes of rape and sexual slavery, and forced marriages, occurred when he was the chief of police, Al Hassan could not be directly connected to them.
Sentence does not reflect the seriousness of the crimes
Salimata, a clothes shopkeeper in Timbuktu, was sexually violated by the jihadists but couldn’t lodge a complaint or get any help. She says that the absence of state authority during the jihadist rule compounded the suffering.
To help her heal, her parents sent her to Kati, a town in Mali’s Koulikoro Region.
“When I heard that some of the jihadists had been arrested, I had hope that we’d get justice. However, justice has never seen the light of day in my case, as it has for most of the victims here in Timbuktu,” said Salimata.
“Unfortunately, I’m waiting for financial compensation instead. I’ve always wanted to have the right to a gynaecological and blood test worthy of the name,” she added.
To Salimata, the sentence handed down to Al Hassan does not reflect the seriousness of the crimes and violations against women in Timbuktu and in her opinion, he deserves worse.
Her voice highlights the gendered violence endured during the occupation, a crime that many feel was inadequately addressed in the trial.
For most of the victims sexual crimes, Al Hassan’s sentencing will only serve to exacerbate the trauma they suffered. In June, 2024, Seydou Doumbia, one of the three lawyers representing 2,196 victims, told Justice Info that the verdict was unsatisfactory.
“A large number of our victims of sexual crimes are not satisfied,” he said, insisting that the evidence presented was sufficient for Al Hassan to be found guilty.
The Prosecution had recommended a joint sentence of no less than 22 years imprisonment. The legal representatives of the victims also conveyed statements from their clients, who wanted Al Hassan to stay in prison for “a long time” or be given a life sentence.
Both the prosecution and the defence can appeal the verdict and sentence. Reparations will be addressed in due course.
Al Hassan’s is the second case from Mali before the ICC and the first to address “personal injury” crimes. The first case resulted in the conviction of Ahmed Al-Faqi Al-Mahdi, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the deliberate destruction of nine mausoleums and the secret gate of the Sidi Yahia Mosque in Timbuktu in 2012.
