Pallade Veneta - ICC to sentence Timbuktu war criminal

Judges could impose up to life imprisonment on Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, 47, after his conviction for crimes including torture.

Handing down the verdict in June, presiding judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua said Al Hassan played a "key role" overseeing amputations and floggings as police chief.

He was a member of the feared Ansar Dine Islamic militant group that seized control of Timbuktu for almost a year from early 2012.

During that time, women were arrested then raped in detention, Mindua told the court during the verdict.

The judge said there were also brutal floggings in the central square in front of crowds including children, as well as a public amputation by machete.

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

Although the court ruled that certain crimes of sexual violence had taken place during the period, he was not found to bear responsibility for them.

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

Founded between the fifth and 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu is known as the "Pearl of the Desert" and "The City of 333 Saints" for the number of Muslim sages buried there during a golden age of Islam.

But jihadists who swept into the city considered the shrines idolatrous and destroyed them with pickaxes and bulldozers.

The militants from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar Dine groups exploited an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to take over cities in Mali's volatile north.

Al Hassan is the second Malian jihadist suspect to be sentenced by the court in connection with Timbuktu.

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the destruction of Timbuktu's shrines.

The sentence was later reduced by two years.

Also in the ICC's sights over alleged atrocities in Timbuktu is Iyad Ag Ghaly, one of the top jihadist leaders in the Sahel.

Ag Ghaly is considered to be the leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which operates in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Also known as "Abou Fadl", Ag Ghaly is wanted on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Timbuktu, the ICC said.

These include murder, rape and sexual slavery, and attacks on religious and historic monuments.

The ICC made public a formal warrant for his arrest in June.

R.Lagomarsino--PV