At his war crimes trial, lawyers for a Malian Islamist rebel accused of being pivotal to the persecution of Timbuktu citizens and the destruction of the city’s holy sites told judges that he was unfairly targeted.

“He shouldn’t be convicted because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong ethnicity,” defense attorney Melinda Taylor said of her client Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz.

Prosecutors claim Al Hassan was a prominent member of the Ansar Dine Islamist organization, which took control of Timbuktu in 2012 and controlled every aspect of everyday life. According to the prosecutors, Al Hassan led an Islamic police unit that intimidated the people of Timbuktu. He is accused of war crimes such as torture.

In what is known as the “City of 333 Saints,” al Qaeda-linked forces used pickaxes, shovels, and hammers to smash clay tombs and centuries-old shrines symbolizing the local Sufi style of Islam, in addition to attempting to enforce sharia Islamic rule over a split Mali.

In their opening remarks, the defense counsel did not deny that Al Hassan was a member of Ansar Dine. They painted him, on the other hand, as a man simply attempting to keep order in a chaotic environment in Timbuktu after the rebels took it.

Furthermore, the defense claims that Al Hassan suffers mental issues as a result of claimed torture while in jail in Mali before to being transported to the ICC.

Since 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s only permanent war crimes tribunal, has been investigating events in Mali. The following year, French and Malian troops forced the insurgents back.

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