THE HAGUE (Reuters) - An Islamist militant suspected of committing war crimes in Mali is due to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Wednesday, three days after the Malian authorities handed him over into the court's custody last week. The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud for crimes allegedly committed while serving as de facto chief of religious police after his jihadist group seized control of the Malian city of Timbuktu in 2012. The hearing at 1300 GMT in The Hague comes after Hassan was captured over the weekend by Malian authorities and swiftly transferred to the Netherlands late Saturday. He faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the destruction of the holy shrines of Timbuktu between 2012 and 2013 as well as accusations of rape and forced marriage. Prosecutors accuse him of being a member of Ansar Dine, one of several Islamist militant groups to have waged an insurgency against the government since 2012. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the destruction of cultural monuments in the ancient city in Mali’s north, and over enforcement of policies that led to sexual enslavement of women and girls. Mahdi was sentenced to nine years behind bars in September 2016 for his role in the razing of Timbuktu's holy shrines, built in the 15th and 16th centuries when the city was revered as a centre of Islamic learning. It was once a major trading hub and a center of Sufi Islam - a branch of the religion seen as idolatrous by some hardline Muslim groups. Hassan is the second Islamic extremist to face trial at the ICC for the destruction of Timbuktu, following a 2016 landmark ruling at the world&39;s only permanent war crimes court. In the court&39;s first case to focus on cultural destruction, the ICC judges found Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi guilty of directing attacks on the UNESCO world heritage site in 2012. "We are satisfied that the court listened to us and widened the scope of prosecutions in the Mali case to include crimes against persons and especially sexual and gender-based crimes," Moctar Mariko, a Malian human rights activist, said in a statement.
Malian alleged Islamic extremist war criminal Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud makes an initial appearance before the International Criminal Court accused of demolishing shrines in Timbuktu, rape, torture, and sexual enslavement.