[3] Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) held military control over Timbuktu during April 2012 to January 2013.
Ansar Dine and AQMI created what they called a religious police force, a morals brigade and an Islamic tribunal, which severely punished locals disobeying the Ansar Dine/AQMI rules, with imprisonment, unfair trials, flogging, torture and the destruction of religious objects.
[1] Al-Hassan participated in a program of forced marriages that effectively rendered Timbuktu women and girls as sexual slaves.
[1] The Prosecutor of the ICC, in light of her investigation in Mali, argued that al-Hassan's actions during 2012 and 2013 constituted part of the systematic policy of an organisation against the civilian population of Timbuktu, and that he individually, together with others, via others, and by giving orders or encouragements, was penally responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
[7] The defence claimed that trial evidence against Al-Hassan was tainted by his torture in Mali during the time that ICC investigators interviewed him.
"[11][excessive quote] Luban concluded: "The Trial Chamber's decision, in brief: we don't want to hear about torture or the shadow it casts on evidence.