Prosecutor v. Al Hassan

During an armed conflict in Mali, a militant jihadi Salafist group controlled Mali’s Timbuktu region. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud (Al Hassan) (defendant) was a senior member of the group’s Islamic police force. This police force enforced religious laws imposed on civilians, frequently using violence and without giving the accused a trial. Later, Al Hassan was charged in the International Criminal Court (ICC) with 13 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including summary executions, torture, and sexual slavery. One element of the crimes against humanity was proving that the crimes occurred during a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. The charging documents alleged that Al Hassan had led or participated in many police attacks on civilians during the relevant time and had personally flogged at least three civilians. Al Hassan challenged the case’s admissibility, arguing it lacked sufficient gravity to be heard by the ICC. The ICC’s pretrial chamber rejected the challenge, finding that the quality and quantity of the crimes alleged were sufficiently serious to warrant ICC consideration. Al Hassan appealed, arguing that (1) the pretrial chamber’s definition of case was overbroad because it included the context of Al Hassan’s actions in addition to his actual actions and (2) his actual role in the alleged events was minor and did not satisfy the ICC’s gravity requirement for hearing a case. The ICC’s appeals chamber reviewed the appeal.