“Today, after two days of hearings and nearly at the end of the trial, the prosecution asks the Chamber to impose a sentence in the range of between nine to 11 years”, prosecutor Gilles Dutertre told a three-judge bench. First of all, Mahdi is the first suspect to face ICC with charges of destructing heritage, the first radical Malian to stand before worldwide court, and the first to be accused for crimes during the struggle in Mali.
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A Malian Islamist militant who led the 2012 destruction of cultural heritage sites and ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu has pleaded guilty at the International Criminal Court.
The trial is continuing even after Al Mahdi’s guilty plea to give an opportunity to Timbuktu residents to relate the impact of the destruction on their lives.
“It draws our attention to an increasingly worrying trend of deliberate destruction of cultural heritage in situations of armed conflict”, said the statement, which also noted that “such attacks represent a callous assault on the dignity and identity of entire populations and their religious and historical roots”.
The court’s action is important as it comes as the Islamic State blows up ancient monuments in Syria, such as the Arch of Triumph in the 2,000-year-old Roman city of Palmyra, despite global protests.
Mahdi’s rebel group is accused of destroying nine mausoleums and the door of a mosque. By the time French and Malian forces retook the city 10 months later, at least 14 mausoleums and part of a mosque had been destroyed.
Fadi El Abdallah, spokesperson for the ICC, said the proceedings are meant to send a clear message.
Kassongo, who recently visited Timbuktu to speak to residents affected by the attack, called Al Mahdi’s remorse into question as he urged the three-judge panel to deliver a stiff sentence. Imploring forgiveness, including from the people of Timbuktu, he said, “I would like them to look at me like a son that has lost his way, and to accept my regrets”. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi appears at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Aug. 22, 2016, at the start of his trial on charges of involvement in the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Mal.
“The ethnic cleansers in the Balkans, like the jihadis in Iraq, Syria, and Timbuktu and other places, are keenly aware of the significance of this, which is why they devote so much personnel and resources to the destruction of religious and cultural landmarks”, Riedlmayer said.
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Speaking after Monday’s hearing, Bensouda said further charges could follow in her Mali probe. He and his associates “unleashed a destructive rage” that damaged priceless monuments for no reason other than their extremist worldview, she said. “We thank almighty God and all our partners, all those who have helped with his arrest so that today justice can be done”.
