The mausoleum of Cheick Sidi Attawaty on September 19, 2016 in Timbuktu, was destroyed by the Islamists led by the Tuareg Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi in 2012. HERITAGE . "Mr. Al Mahdi, the crime for which you have been convicted is very serious," said Judge Raul Pangalangan. "The chamber sentences you to nine years in detention," he added after finding the guilt of the accused because of "his direct participation in numerous incidents and his role as a spokesperson to justify the attacks in the media". From the dunes of the Sahara to those of the North Sea, at the foot of which stands the ICC, the Tuareg Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was accused of a war crime for having "intentionally directed attacks" against nine of the mausoleums of Timbuktu (northern Mali) and against the door of the Sidi Yahia mosque between June 30 and July 11, 2012. After pleading guilty at the start of his trial, this man with small glasses had asked forgiveness from his people, claiming to be "full of remorse and regret. Saying to have been at the time "under the influence" of jihadist groups, he had called on the Muslims of the world of everything to resist "this kind of action". In a gray suit, white shirt and striped tie, Mr. Al Mahdi listened to the reading of the judgment with a focused air, shaking his head from time to time. As he sat down again after the sentence was read, he put a hand on his heart.
Timbuktu, in northern Mali is a sacred place in the history of Islam:"the city of 333 saints" has been listed since 1988 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
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The judges said the defendant, born around 1975, was a member of Ansar Dine, one of the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups that controlled northern Mali for about ten months in 2012, before being largely driven out by an international intervention launched in January 2013 by France. As head of the Hisbah, the Islamic morals brigade, he had ordered and participated in the attacks on the mausoleums, destroyed with pickaxes, hoes and chisels. This brigade is accused by human rights organizations of having committed crimes against humanity, including crimes of torture, rape and the sexual enslavement of women from Timbuktu.
Although it is "a clear message" against the destruction of cultural property, the judgment highlights "the need for Mali to be more active in the prosecution of war crimes", said the NGO Human Rights Watch in a release. The judges held several mitigating circumstances in favor of Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, including his admission of guilt, his cooperation, his empathy for the victims and his remorse as well as his "initial reluctance to commit the crimes". This trial, the first for the destruction of cultural property, has seen an avalanche of other scoops:the first accused to admit his guilt, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi is the first jihadist to be tried in The Hague and the first accused under the Malian conflict. While many sites are regularly destroyed in Syria or Iraq, this judgment sends "a strong signal" against the destruction of cultural property, said in a press release the Minusma, the United Nations mission in Mali. She also hopes that the judges' decision "will put an end to impunity". But even as the list of endangered sites continues to grow, further prosecution will not be obvious. Neither Iraq nor Syria have signed the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC. Without a UN decision, no investigation is possible.