A general view of the exterior of the International Criminal Court is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025. AP-Yonhap
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 court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, 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 to fulfill its mandate.
In its two decades of operation, the trust fund has received money from perpetrators in only one case.
Source: Korea Times News
