![handle is hein.journals/jicj19 and id is 1 raw text is: New Technologies and the
Investigation of International
Crimes
An Introduction
Alexa Koenig,* Emma Irving,**
Yvonne McDermott,*** Daragh Murray****
1. Introduction
Between April 2012 and January 2013, the historic city of Timbuktu, Mali
was ravaged in a series of widespread and systematic attacks, some of which
have been characterized as potential crimes against humanity, others as pos-
sible war crimes. Many of the victims were civilians. Those believed responsible
were members of Ansar Dine and Al Oaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, who were
alleged to have committed crimes as disparate as torture, outrages upon per-
sonal dignity, rape, forced marriage, sexual slavery, denial of a fair trial, per-
secution, other inhumane acts, and destruction of historic property.1 As of the
time of writing, two warrants of arrest have been issued by the International
Criminal Court (ICC) for individuals believed to be connected to these crimes.
The first accused, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, was transferred to ICC custody
on 26 September 2015. Al Mahdi's case quickly became notable for the sig-
nificant quantities of digital information that investigators had collected as
evidence of Al Mahdi's possible crimes. This information included photographs
and videos that depicted culturally significant buildings before, during, and
after their destruction, and satellite images, which helped place the photos
and videos in geographic space, including their relative locations. Several of
these images were used to compose a 'geolocation report' a report
* Executive Director and Lecturer-in-Residence, Human Rights Center, University of California,
Berkeley, USA. [kalexakm@berkeley.edu]
** Public International Law and International Criminal Justice and Technology consultant.
[e.emmairving@gmail.com]
*** Professor of Law, Swansea University, UK. [Yvonne.McDermottRees@swansea.ac.uk]
**** Senior Lecturer, Human Rights Centre and School of Law, University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
[d.murray@essex.ac.uk]
1 Prosecutor v. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud (ICC-01/12-01/18), available
online at https://www.icc-cpi.int/mali/al-hassan ( visited 21 April 2021).
Journal of International Criminal Justice 19 (2021), 1-7 doi:10.1093/jicj/mgab040
© The Author(s) (2021). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Advance Access publication 5 July 2021
For permissions, please email: joumals.permissions@oup.com](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jicj19&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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