He’s also the first to plead guilty to the cultural destruction of the historic city of Timbuktu.
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“We do want to forgive Ahmad Al Madi, but we need to be sure that he is being honest during this trial”, said Diadié Hamadoun Maiga, a member of Timbuktu’s Islamic High Council who led a local crisis committee during the occupation.
But Al-Mahdi was instructed to destroy the nine tombs which are recognised as World Heritage Sites by the United Nations as they were deemed idolatrous.
As the Two-Way has reported, the trial against Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi is believed to be the first time desecration of cultural heritage has been prosecuted as a war crime by the tribunal in The Hague. Given his guilty plea, it is expected that al-Mahdi’s trial will conclude within a week.
“They are not going to lead to any good for humanity”, he said.
A screengrab of video footage showing militants destroying one of the mausoleums in Timbuktu in 2012.
Court documents state that the buildings in Mali were “regarded and protected as a significant part of the cultural heritage of Timbuktu” and that “the community in Timbuktu was involved in their maintenance and used them for their religious practices”. Kassongo said the destruction of the World Heritage-listed sites was also a financial blow to residents, crippling tourism in the remote African city.
“This prosecution is timely” in light of the “stark increase in crimes against cultural property” in war zones, says Richard Dicker, head of the International Justice program at Human Rights Watch.
Today Timbuktoo’s residents hope that al-Mahdi’s trial will begin to restore the city’s fabled image amongst tourists – and bring back a badly needed source of income.
Mahdi, a former civil servant, said: “This is the first and last wrongful act I will ever commit”.
The trial is the first at the ICC to cite destroying cultural artefacts as a war crime, and Mahdi is the first ICC defendant accused of war crimes to enter a guilty plea.
Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist leader Ahmad Faqi Al Mahdi in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Most dated from Mali’s 14th-century golden age as a trading hub and centre of Sufi Islam.
The prosecution says this man with small glasses was a member of Ansar Dine, which is part of the jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda who have controlled northern Mali for about ten months in 2012 before being largely driven by worldwide intervention initiated by France in January 2013.
Mahdi, also known as “Abou Tourab”, was charged in March in the attacks between June and July 2012.
The prosecutors revealed at the start of trial that they had made a deal with the defence team to ask for a jail term of nine to 11 years. A maximum sentence would be 30 years.
Five days have been set aside for al Mahdi’s trial in the Netherlands before a three-judge ICC panel.
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He fast became a fervent proponent of the strictest interpretations of Islamic law, which had little popular support in Mali, but his chance came when jihadists descended on Timbuktu in April 2012.
