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On June 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an international arrest warrant for Iyad Ag Ghali. Will the unsealing of this arrest warrant, which has been issued but kept secret since July 17, 2017, speed up the capture and trial of the leaders of the Jamaat al-Nusra (JNIM)?
According to the arrest warrant, Iyad Ag Ghaly is suspected of being responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Timbuktu between January 2012 and January 2013 (murder of soldiers hors de combat in Agyok, rape, sexual slavery and any other form of sexual acts. Violence, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of personal liberty, torture and persecution of women and girls, including for gender-based reasons).
The arrest warrant, originally issued in July 2017, had until then been kept secret due to “potential risks to witnesses and victims” but was passed on to Malian and French authorities when France deployed its Crescent Forces troops in the country.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who requested the unsealing as early as July 2022, said the reasons behind its publication remain confidential.
Is it possible to try it?
“The Chamber orders the Registrar of the Court to prepare a request for cooperation for the arrest and surrender of the suspect and to submit it to the competent authorities of any relevant State and/or any other relevant authority,” the press release states, according to the ICC.
The ICC does not have its own police force and therefore must rely on the cooperation of various countries to arrest Iyad Ag Ghali, but his movements are almost invisible and security forces remain difficult to reach.
The head of JNIM is also charged with “criminal gang activities, terrorist acts, crimes against humanity, war crimes, financing of terrorism, money laundering, assassination, arson, intentional injury, violence, and assault and damage to the property of others” since February 28, 2024. His last appearance in a video dates back to December 2023. The most wanted terrorist leader in the Sahel announced a new stage in the jihad in the region against the Malian armed forces and their Russian partners under Wagner.
However, lifting the confidentiality of ICC arrest warrants would allow for indictment hearings to be held even in the accused’s absence, with the aim of interviewing witnesses and recording evidence.
“Today, no one dares to say that this arrest warrant will succeed, but it may prompt the states that sheltered Iyad Ag Ghali to think twice before keeping him on their soil,” stressed academic and political analyst Pierre Claver Bakoroba Traoré.
“It will be extremely complex to capture Ayad Ag Ghali alive and bring him to justice. To do so would require very extensive cooperation among the countries where he may be hiding, but this is unlikely,” estimated another analyst.
Three links?
If the ICC succeeds in arresting Iyad Ag Ghali, he will become the third Malian terrorist to be tried by the International Criminal Court. On September 27, 2016, she tried and sentenced Ahmad Al Faqi, a former member of Ançar Dine and Aqmi, to nine years in prison.
The former head of the Islamic Jihad Police, Al Hassan Abdel Aziz Ag Mohammed, was also convicted on June 26, 2024, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2012 and 2013 in the city of Timbuktu.
The Malian terrorist could face a heavy sentence, which will be determined at a later date.
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