On Monday, she praised Mahdi’s cooperation while setting out the charges against him and saying she hoped his case would help bring an end to destruction of cultural objects by drawing attention to the fact it is a war crime. He should not be the last.
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The trial marks a new step in the full recognition of deliberate destruction of heritage as war crimes, after decades of efforts by UNESCO and by the worldwide community, notably since the destruction of the Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia and of the Old Bridge of Mostar, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which strengthened the legal basis and global awareness that no such crime should remain unpunished.
It was also the first time a suspected Islamist militant has stood trial at the ICC and the first time a suspect has pleaded guilty.
The revered personages buried in the mausoleums in Timbuktu worth its nickname of “city of 333 saints” who, according to Malian experts of Islam are considered the protectors of the city, may be requested for weddings, imploring rain or fight against starvation.
The court’s recent enforcement of the statute could set a precedent for similar cases like ISIL’s destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra previous year.
ICC prosecutors allege that Mahdi was a member of Ansar Dine, a mainly Tuareg movement that in 2012 took control of Timbuktu, some 1 000km northeast of Bamako, along with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
On Monday, August 22, the Malian Islamic extremist Ahmad al-Faqi al Mahdi pleaded guilty to the destruction of cultural heritage in Timbuktu, Mali, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Al-Mahdi led those efforts.
Al Mahdi led a group of radicals that destroyed 14 of Timbuktu’s 16 mausoleums in 2012 because they considered them totems of idolatry.
“I am also seeking forgiveness from the ancestors of the mausoleums I have destroyed”.
“I seek their forgiveness and I ask them to look at me as a son who has lost his way”, he told the ICC.
But vowing that was all in the past, he sought to distance himself from the jihadists describing their acts as “evil”.
Most of the sites dated from Mali’s 14th-century golden age as a trading hub and centre of Sufi Islam – a branch of the religion seen as idolatrous by some hardline Muslim groups.
“The heritage of mankind was ransacked”, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court.
The main charge is an intentional destruction of cultural property, such cases aren’t unique.
“The ICC and my office sent a very strong signal that these kinds of crimes are war crimes”, she added.
Al-Mahdi faces up to 30 years in prison, however The Guardian reports that his attorneys have struck an agreement with prosecutors to whittle the term down to between nine and 11 years.
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Such attacks were “a callous assault on the dignity and identity of entire populations”, he added. He and his associates “unleashed a destructive rage” that damaged priceless monuments for no reason other than their extremist worldview, she said.
