THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court on Tuesday ordered an al-Qaida-linked extremist leader to pay 7.2 million euros ($8.4 million) in reparations for atrocities he oversaw as head of the Islamic police in the desert city of Timbuktu in the West African country of Mali.
Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was convicted of torture, religious persecution and other inhumane acts in 2024 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Judges found he was a key figure in a reign of terror after Islamic extremist rebels overran Timbuktu in 2012.
“Mr. Al Hassan, as the person found responsible for the crimes, which caused the harm to the victims, is the person financially liable for the cost of repairing the harm,” Presiding Judge Kimberly Prost said, addressing the courtroom in the Dutch city of The Hague.
While the court has declared Al Hassan liable, it won’t be able to collect the money from the 49-year-old, who was declared indigent and represented by a court-funded lawyer during his trial.
Instead, reparations for the more than 65,000 victims will be paid by the Trust Fund for Victims, set up by the court’s member states to distribute the funds.
We are “one of the many innovations of the Rome Statute,” the fund’s executive director, Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, told The Associated Press. Under the statute, the court’s founding treaty, the fund “responds to the harm resulting from the crimes under the jurisdiction.”
The 24 staff members in Ruiz Verduzco’s office are tasked with assisting victims and their families, establishing programs in communities destroyed by violence and drumming up financial support.
In its two decades of operation, the trust fund has received money from perpetrators in only one case.
“Substantial fundraising will need to take place,” Prost said.
The bulk of the money will come from the court’s member states, though the fund also accepts private donations. In March, Germany gave 40,000 euros ($46,000). Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands are the three biggest supporters.
Judges guide how the reparations money will be allocated, though they solicit input from the victims through their lawyers and the trust fund.
In the Al Hassan case, the reparations will be used for “socioeconomic support, educational programs or trainings and psychological support,” according to the decision. Projects should target women and girls, who suffered disproportionately under the extremist groups.
Communities in Mali already have seen some restitution. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2016 for destroying historic mausoleums in Timbuktu. In 2021, the trust fund began a project to repair ruined buildings.
Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, for over a decade has battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.
Tuesday’s decisions comes days after an alliance of al-Qaida-linked militants and separatists carried out the largest coordinated attack in Mali in over a decade.
