Malian jihadist gets 9 years for war on culture
War crimes judges jailed a Malian jihadist Tuesday for nine years for demolishing Timbuktu’s fabled shrines, a landmark ruling seen as a warning that destroying mankind’s heritage will not go unpunished.
In the first such case to focus on cultural destruction as a war crime, the International Criminal Court found Ahmad al Faqi al Mahdi guilty of directing attacks on the UNESCO world heritage site during the jihadist takeover of northern Mali in 2012.
Mahdi “supervised the destruction and gave instructions to the attackers” who took pickaxes and bulldozers to the centuriesold shrines, presiding judge Raul Pangalangan told the tribunal. “The chamber unanimously finds that Mr al Mahdi is guilty of the crime of attacking protected sites as a war crime,” he added, during an hour- long hearing at the tribunal based in The Hague. ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, whose office had asked for between nine and 11 years, said the sentence will signal to perpetrators that destroying cultural heritage is “a serious crime”.
“It is a war crime and they will be held accountable for destroying these important sites,” she told AFP.