The International Criminal Court has convicted an al-Qaida-linked extremist leader of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mali, notably for abusing prisoners as the de facto chief of the Islamic police in Timbuktu.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was found guilty of torture and cruel treatment between 2012 and 2013.

Judges in The Hague continued to read the verdict on the many other charges he faced for his alleged role in a reign of terror insurgents unleashed on the historic desert city of Timbuktu, including rape, torture, persecution, enforced marriages and sexual slavery.

Al Hassan faces up to life imprisonment when he is sentenced at a later date.

The convicted Al Hassan with his defence lawyer in the foreground
He had been accused of playing a key role in a reign of terror unleashed by al-Qaida-linked insurgents on the historic desert city of Timbuktu (AP)

Prosecutors say he was a key member of Ansar Dine, an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida that held power in northern Mali at the time.

Women and girls suffered in particular under Ansar Dine’s repressive regime, facing corporal punishment and imprisonment, the court’s then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said at the start of Al Hassan’s trial nearly four years ago.

“Many were forced into marriage,” Ms Bensouda said. “Confined against their will and repeatedly raped by members of the armed group.”

Al Hassan was involved in organising such marriages, the prosecutor told judges.

She cited one rape victim as saying: “All that was left of me was a corpse.”

Defence lawyer Melinda Taylor told judges that Al Hassan was a member of the Islamic police force who was “obliged to respect and execute the decisions of the Islamic tribunal”.

She said: “This is what the police around the world do.”

In Timbuktu, victims of Ansar Dine crimes are awaiting possible compensation.

“We are waiting and hoping for a judgment that will give us justice,” said Yehia Hamma Cisse, president of a group of victims’ associations in the Timbuktu region.

“Members of our associations have been raped, had their hands cut off, been whipped, and we would like to be compensated,” he said.

The court made a reparation order following the 2016 conviction of an Ansar Dine member, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi. He was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for attacking nine mausoleums and a mosque door in Timbuktu in 2012.

A French-led military operation in 2013 forced Al Hassan and others from power.

Mali, along with its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State group.

Following military 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.

Col Assimi Goita, who took charge in Mali after a second coup in 2021, promised to return the country to democracy in early 2024. But in September, the junta cancelled elections scheduled for February 2024 indefinitely, citing the need for further technical preparations.

The verdicts in Al Hassan’s case were delayed by some six months due to the illness of one of the judges in his trial.