THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court has convicted an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremist leader of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mali’s Timbuktu.
Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was accused of playing a key role in a reign of terror unleashed by insurgents on the historic desert city in northern Mali in 2012.
He was accused of involvement in crimes including rape, torture, persecution, enforced marriages and sexual slavery. Prosecutors say he was a key member of Ansar Dine, an Islamic extremist group with links to Al-Qaeda that held power in northern Mali at the time.
Al Hassan faces up to life imprisonment when a sentence is handed down at a later date.
Prosecutors say he was a key member of Ansar Dine, an Islamic extremist group with links to Al-Qaeda 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,” Bensouda said. “Confined against their will and repeatedly raped by members of the armed group.” Al Hassan was involved in organizing such marriages, the prosecutor told judges.
She cited one rape victim as saying, “All that was left of me was a corpse.”
Defense 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. This is what the police around the world do.”
In Timbuktu, victims of Ansar Dine crimes were awaiting the verdicts and possible compensation.
“We are waiting and hoping for a judgment that will give us justice,” said Yehia Hamma Cissé, 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 neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh 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 canceled 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.
ICC convicts Al-Qaeda-linked leader of atrocities in Mali
https://arab.news/y9rng
ICC convicts Al-Qaeda-linked leader of atrocities in Mali
- Women and girls suffered in particular under Ansar Dine’s repressive regime, facing corporal punishment and imprisonment
Fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria kills at least 52
LAGOS: A fuel tanker exploded after colliding with a truck carrying passengers and cattle in northern Nigeria’s Niger State killing at least 52 people, a rescue agency said on Monday.
Photographs released by the Niger State Emergency Management Agency or SEMA showed workers burying more than a dozen blackened and charred bodies of victims from Sunday’s early morning incident.
Images showed burned-out shells of the vehicles, one still billowing with smoke and flames after the incident in Niger’s Agaie local government district.
Ibrahim Husseini, spokesman for the Niger SEMA, told AFP the victims were given a mass burial following the accident and explosion.
“The incident occurred when a petrol tanker loaded with PMS (fuel) collided with a trailer truck loaded with travelers and cattle,” a SEMA statement said.
Two other vehicles, a crane and a pickup van, were also involved, it added.
Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago expressed sadness over the “colossal” loss, urging local residents to remain calm.
More than 50 cattle were also burnt alive.
Fuel tanker explosions are common in Africa’s most populous nation, where roads can be poorly maintained, and residents often look to siphon off fuel following accidents.
According to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), more than 5,000 people died in road accidents in Nigeria in 2023, compared to nearly 6,500 the previous year.
But according to the World Health Organization, the figures do not take into account accidents not reported to the authorities.
It estimates annual road accident deaths in Nigeria to be nearly 40,000, in a report published last year.
Deadly fires and explosions also happen in the fuel and oil infrastructure in Nigeria, one of the continent’s largest crude producers where petroleum theft is a major issue.
Two years ago, around 110 people died when an illegal oil refinery exploded in the south of the country.
Nigeria recently has faced serious fuel shortages after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL) said it was struggling with debts to suppliers.
A sudden increase in fuel prices by NNPCL last week has added to the financial burden for Nigerians already coping with a cost-of-living crisis.
UK rejects Afghan family’s request to join son, 13, in Britain
- Boy was evacuated from Kabul in 2021 amid Taliban takeover
- His family, who risk Taliban reprisal, were refused family reunion visa this year
LONDON: The visa of an Afghan family hoping to be reunited with their 13-year-old son in the UK has been rejected by the Home Office.
In 2021, Ahmad, then aged 10, was brought to the UK during the evacuation from Afghanistan as the Taliban retook the country, The Guardian reported.
About 15,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans were transported from the country.
But Ahmad’s family remain in Afghanistan, and the 13-year-old’s father says his life is at risk over his past work for a company linked to the Western presence in the country.
Last year, they applied for a UK family reunion visa, which the Home Office rejected in June this year.
A letter sent to Ahmad’s father, seen by The Guardian, claims that the rejection would not breach the right to a family life.
“You have failed to show any exceptional dependency between you and your sponsor (Ahmad) … As such I am satisfied that this refusal has not breached your right to a family life,” the Home Office letter said.
It also claimed that the family were not at “exceptional” risk in Afghanistan, based on Ahmad’s father being able to obtain identity documents from Taliban government ministries.
Ahmad has been living with extended family since arriving in Britain and has started school.
His father told The Guardian: “My life is in danger because I worked with foreign forces … The decision from the Home Office made us very upset. We felt that we had the right this country would allow us to reunite with our child.
“It’s been for the past three years that we are missing one member of our family and his place is empty in our life, and that is our son.”
Now the family are being represented in a legal appeal by a pro bono initiative for Afghans.
The scheme is run by the refugee charities Safe Passage International and Refugee Legal Support.
Helena Cullen, Ahmad’s lawyer, said that the 13-year-old is one of about 80 children who were split from their family during Britain’s Afghanistan evacuation.
“This family was tragically separated during the chaos of Operation Pitting and have been fighting to reunite for the last three years, battling many hurdles just to get their family reunion application submitted,” she said.
A separated families visa route announced by the UK government in July may offer fresh hope for Ahmad’s family and others, she added.
Ahmad is reportedly depressed and suffering from deteriorating mental health, said Dr. Wanda Wyporska, CEO of Safe Passage International, citing the charity’s legal and safeguarding experts.
The boy’s aunt, whom he lives with in the UK, said that she was shocked by the Home Office’s decision.
“We all know that children need their parents, especially when they are this age.”
The Home Office said in a statement on the case: “All applications are carefully considered on their individual merits and in line with the immigration rules.”
Indian news agency sues Netflix for using its content in hijack drama
- The story is a fictionalized version of the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight from Katmandu
- It has been embroiled in controversy since its release last month, with Netflix adding disclaimers
NEW DELHI: Indian news agency ANI has sued Netflix Inc. and producers of an Indian series about a plane hijack, asking for four episodes to be taken down as they used ANI content without permission, ANI’s lawyer told Reuters on Monday.
The series, called “IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack” — a fictionalized version of the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 from Katmandu — has been embroiled in controversy since its release last month.
Social media users and members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party have criticized the show for what they said was an incorrect portrayal of the hijackers as Hindus with Hindu names when they were Muslims.
Netflix added new disclaimers to the six-episode show last week after its officials were summoned by India’s information and broadcasting ministry. It also said the code names used in the series reflected those used during the actual event.
“They have used copyright archival footage of ANI without license, they have also used the (ANI) trademark,” Sidhant Kumar, counsel for ANI, said.
“Since the series has come into such criticism, our trademark and brandname is being tarnished,” Kumar said, adding that ANI wants Netflix to take down four episodes where its content has been used.
The Delhi High Court had agreed to hear the case and sought the response of Netflix, he said.
There was no immediate response from Netflix for a request for comment from Reuters, which has a minority stake in ANI.
India blames Pakistan and Pakistan-based militant groups for the December 1999 hijack, which was resolved after New Delhi freed three Islamist militants, including Masood Azhar, the head of one such group.
Several passengers injured as plane skids off Indonesia runway
JAYAPURA: A plane with 48 people aboard skidded off the runway in Indonesia’s remote eastern region of Papua on Monday, police said, injuring several passengers.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has a poor aviation safety record, and Papua is covered in mountainous terrain where flying is hampered by frequent poor weather.
The ATR-42 aircraft belonging to Trigana Air was taking off from an airport in the remote Yapen Islands regency to Papuan capital Jayapura on Monday morning when it skidded off the runway.
The flight was carrying 42 passengers, including a baby, and six crew.
“Praise God everybody survived and has been taken to a hospital for a health checkup,” local police chief Ardyan Ukie Hercahyo said in a statement.
“We are investigating the incident and coordinating with related parties to ensure this will never happen again.”
The local search and rescue agency said in a statement that some passengers were injured and traumatized by the incident.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, but Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.
In 2015, a Trigana Air plane crashed there, killing all 54 people on board.
Bangladesh to seek extradition of ousted leader from India
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal is to seek the extradition of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina from neighboring India, its chief prosecutor has said, accusing her of carrying out “massacres.”
Weeks of student-led demonstrations in Bangladesh escalated into mass protests last month, with Hasina quitting as prime minister and fleeing by helicopter to old ally India on August 5, ending her iron-fisted 15-year rule.
“As the main perpetrator has fled the country, we will start the legal procedure to bring her back,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters on Sunday.
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2010 to probe atrocities during the 1971 independence war from Pakistan.
Hasina’s government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.
“Bangladesh has a criminal extradition treaty with India which was signed in 2013, while Sheikh Hasina’s government was in power,” Islam added.
“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial.”
Hasina, 76, has not been seen in public since fleeing Bangladesh, and her last official whereabouts is a military air base near India’s capital New Delhi. Her presence in India has infuriated Bangladesh.
Dhaka has revoked her diplomatic passport, and the countries have a bilateral extradition treaty which would permit her return to face criminal trial.
A clause in the treaty, however, says extradition might be refused if the offense is of a “political character.”
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over after the uprising, last week said Hasina should “keep quiet” while exiled in India until she is brought home for trial.
“If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet,” Yunus, 84, told the Press Trust of India news agency.
His government has been under public pressure to demand her extradition and trial over the hundreds of demonstrators killed during the weeks of unrest that ultimately toppled her.
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina’s ouster, according to a preliminary United Nations report, suggesting the toll was “likely an underestimate.”
Bangladesh last month opened an investigation led by a retired high court judge into hundreds of enforced disappearances by security forces during Hasina’s rule.
