Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Who is the world's first cultural war criminal?

The International Criminal Court has sentenced an Islamist militant who destroyed ancient shrines in Timbuktu to nine years in jail.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi admitted to leading rebel forces who destroyed historic mausoleums at the world heritage site in Mali in 2012.

Judges at the court in The Hague found he had shown "remorse and empathy" for the crime.

It is the first sentence based on cultural destruction as a war crime.

It is also the first time a suspected Islamist militant has stood trial at the ICC.

Mahdi - described as a "religious scholar" in court documents - led rebels who used pickaxes and crowbars to destroy nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the city's Sidi Yahia mosque.

The court found he not only offered "logistical and moral support" for the attacks, but also took part in the physical destruction of at least five out of the 10 buildings.

Image copyright AFP/ Getty Images Image caption Nine mausoleums and a mosque were destroyed in 2012

However, Mahdi had at first advised rebel leaders not to attack the shrines.

Admitting to the charges last month, Mahdi claimed he had been swept up in "an evil wave".

Pleading guilty, he said: "I am really sorry, I am really remorseful, and I regret all the damage that my actions have caused.

"I would like to give a piece of advice to all Muslims in the world, not to get involved in the same acts I got involved in, because they are not going to lead to any good for humanity," he added

Rare ICC success: Analysis by Anna Holligan at The Hague

Wearing a grey suit, striped tie and spectacles, there was little sign of the violent jihadist responsible for destroying these treasured shrines.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was a member of a group with links to al-Qaeda and the leader of the morality police (a religious vice squad operating in Timbuktu during the rebel occupation).

According to the judge, he wrote a sermon dedicated to the destruction, gave instruction and tools to complete the operation. His confession, a well-considered apology and apparent willingness to co-operate with the court contributed to the nine year sentence.

While the case is being seen as a rare success for the ICC some of the victims in Mali say the charges don't cover some of the most devastating atrocities committed during the occupation - including violence against women, rape and sexual slavery.

Prosecutors said Mahdi was a member of Ansar Dine - an Islamist group with roots in the nomadic Tuareg group and links to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb - that occupied Timbuktu for months, instilling its own version of Sharia law on residents.

Islamists regard the shrines and the city's ancient manuscripts, covering everything from history to astronomy, as idolatrous.

Image copyright Reuters

The rebels decided to destroy the buildings after people continued to pray at the historic sites.

Mahdi led a series of planned attacks, starting with a sermon given during Friday prayers, and later gave press statements defending the actions.

However, his sentence was on the lower end of the scale after the ICC judges accepted a number of mitigating factors, including his confession.

Correspondents in Timbuktu, a Unesco world heritage site which had been a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries, say the sentencing was generally welcomed.

One resident was more circumspect, telling the BBC he felt it difficult to forgive: "Forgiveness means coming here in Mali and asking for forgiveness to Malians and especially from the people of Timbuktu who suffered from the anger of jihadism.

"We will accept to forgive when Ahmad al-Faqi understands that this land is sacred, the shrines are sacred, and that understanding our culture is sacred."</s>The International Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Malian jihadist to nine years jail for razing Timbuktu's fabled shrines, in a landmark judgement experts hope will help safeguard the world's ancient monuments.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was convicted of a crime of "significant gravity", ICC judge Raul Pangalangan told the tribunal, adding the chamber "unanimously sentences you to nine years of imprisonment".

Islamist rebel Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi looks on during an appearance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on August 22, 2016, at the start of his trial on charges of involvement in the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu. AFP PHOTO</s>Alleged Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist leader Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi pleaded guilty to a single charge of cultural destruction at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. By Patrick Post (ANP/AFP/File)

The Hague (AFP) - The International Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Malian jihadist to nine years jail for razing Timbuktu's fabled shrines, in a landmark judgement experts hope will help safeguard the world's ancient monuments.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was convicted of a crime of "significant gravity", ICC judge Raul Pangalangan told the tribunal, adding the chamber "unanimously sentences you to nine years of imprisonment".</s>Alleged Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist leader Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi pleaded guilty to a single charge of cultural destruction at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. By Patrick Post (ANP/AFP/File)

The Hague (AFP) - 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 centuries-old 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.

Some 55 places around the world are on UNESCO's list of endangered cultural heritage sites.

Handed over to the ICC in late 2015, Mahdi, dressed in a sober grey suit and blue-striped tie, listened intently, but made no comment as sentence was passed.

The landmark verdict is also the first arising out of the conflict in Mali, and the first time a jihadist has sat in the dock.

In an unprecedented move, Mahdi, aged between 30 and 40, last month pleaded guilty to the single war crimes charge of "intentionally directing" attacks on nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the city's Sidi Yahia mosque.

The judges recognised the severity of the crimes targeting sites which "were dedicated to religion and historic monuments and were not military objectives".

But they also gave Mahdi credit for his guilty plea, his remorse and for his "substantial cooperation" with the prosecution.

The slight, bespectacled man with a mop of curly hair had previously asked the pardon of his people when videos were shown of him and other Islamist extremists knocking down the earthen shrines.

Founded between the fifth and 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu has been dubbed "the city of 333 saints" for the number of Muslim sages buried there.

Revered as a centre of Islamic learning during its golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was however considered idolatrous by the jihadists who swept across Mali's remote north in early 2012.

As the head of the so-called Hisbah or "Manners Brigade," it was Mahdi, a former teacher and Islamic scholar, who gave the orders to ransack the sites.

Apologising last month at a court hearing, he said he had been overtaken by "evil spirits", urging Muslims not to follow his example.

The court found that Mahdi was a member of Ansar Dine, one of the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups which seized northern territory before being mostly chased out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.

The ruling "is a landmark in gaining recognition for the importance of heritage for humanity as a whole and for the communities that have preserved it over the centuries," UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said.

The UN cultural body also called it a "major step towards peace and reconciliation in Mali".

But there was concern that other crimes committed during the conflict have not yet been prosecuted.

The International Federation for Human Rights "would have liked to see broader charges including those of gender and sexual based crimes," said spokeswoman Carrie Comer.

Human Rights Watch said the ruling sent "a clear message that attacking the world's historical treasures will be punished".

But it also argued the "Malian government should follow suit and step up efforts to ensure investigations and fair trials for crimes committed by all sides."

And Amnesty International said it was a "first step towards broader accountability for all crimes" during the conflict.

Bensouda vowed her office was still investigating, saying "We are also looking into these crimes such as sexual and gender-based crimes and killings."</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands — An international court on Tuesday found a Muslim radical guilty of committing a war crime by overseeing the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu, and sentenced him to nine years in prison.

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, a former teacher, had pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for his role in overseeing the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque door by pickax-wielding rebels in June and July of 2012.

His trial, which opened Aug. 22, was a landmark for the International Criminal Court, which has struggled to bring suspects to justice since its establishment in 2002. It was the tribunal's first conviction for destruction of religious buildings or historic monuments, and the first guilty verdict delivered against a Muslim extremist.

Al-Qaida-linked rebels occupied the fabled Saharan city of Timbuktu in 2012 and enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law that included destruction of the historic mud-brick tombs they considered idolatrous. Al Mahdi was leader of one of the "morality brigades" set up by Timbuktu's new rulers.

ICC prosecutors said Al Mahdi was a member of Ansar Eddine, an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida that held power in northern Mali in 2012. The militants were driven out after nearly a year by French forces, which arrested Al Mahdi in 2014 in neighboring Niger.

Clad in a gray suit and striped purple tie, the defendant said nothing after the verdict and sentencing. Earlier in the trial, Al Mahdi urged Muslims around the world not to commit acts similar to those he had admitted to.

"They are not going to lead to any good for humanity," he said.

Al Mahdi had faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for destruction of the World Heritage-listed sites. But presiding judge Raul Pangalangan said numerous factors argued for a lesser prison term, including Al Mahdi's initial reluctance to raze the historic shrines and what the judge called his apparently sincere admission of guilt.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization hailed the verdict as a crucial step toward ending impunity for the destruction of world cultural landmarks.

Soon after the destruction in 2012, UNESCO alerted the international community including the International Criminal Court "to ensure such crimes do not go unpunished," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement.

"In the context of repeated violence against people and their heritage, this sentence of the International Criminal Court is a key element in the broader response to violent extremism," Bokova said.

Al Mahdi's conviction "is a first important step toward the fight against impunity in Mali," said Drissa Traore, vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights.

"But this victory has an almost unfinished look ... We hope ICC will continue to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the most serious crimes committed in Mali, especially crimes of sexual violence."</s>An international court on Tuesday found a Muslim radical guilty of committing a war crime by overseeing the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu, and sentenced him to nine years in prison.

 Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, a former teacher, had pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for his role in overseeing the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque door by pickax-wielding rebels in June and July of 2012.

 His trial, which opened Aug. 22, was a landmark for the International Criminal Court, which has struggled to bring suspects to justice since its establishment in 2002. It was the tribunal’s first conviction for destruction of religious buildings or historic monuments, and the first guilty verdict delivered against a Muslim extremist.

 Al-Qaida-linked rebels occupied the famed Saharan city of Timbuktu in 2012 and enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law that included destruction of the historic mud-brick mausoleums they considered idolatrous. Al Mahdi was leader of one of the ‘morality brigades’ set up by Timbuktu’s new rulers.

 ICC prosecutors said Al Mahdi was a member of Ansar Eddine, an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida that held power in northern Mali in 2012. The militants were driven out after nearly a year by French forces, which arrested Al Mahdi in 2014 in neighbouring Niger.</s>A three-judge bench began handing down its judgements at 0930 GMT against Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, the first jihadist to stand trial at the tribunal in The Hague.

"The chamber unanimously finds that Mr al-Mahdi is guilty of the crime of attacking protected sites as a war crime," he added, saying the crime had "significant gravity".

The historic verdict is the first to focus solely on cultural destruction as a war crime and the first arising out of the conflict in Mali.

Prosecutors have asked for a jail term of between nine and 11 years, which they said would recognise both the severity of the crime and the fact that Mahdi was the first person to plead guilty before the court.

Observers say they hope the sentence will act as a deterrent to those bent on razing the world's cultural heritage, which UN chief Ban Ki-moon recently condemned as "tearing at the fabric of societies".

In an unprecedented move, Mahdi, aged between 30 and 40, last month pleaded guilty to the single war crimes charge of "intentionally directing" attacks in 2012 on nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the city's Sidi Yahia mosque.

The slight, bespectacled man with a mop of curly hair asked the pardon of his people as videos were shown of him and other Islamist extremists knocking down ancient earthen shrines with pick-axes and bulldozers.

Founded between the fifth and 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu has been dubbed "the city of 333 saints" and the "pearl of the desert" for the number of Muslim sages buried there.

Revered as a centre of Islamic learning during its golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was however considered idolatrous by the jihadists who swept across Mali's remote north in early 2012.

As the head of the so-called Hisbah or "Manners Brigade," it was Mahdi, a former teacher and Islamic scholar, who gave the orders to ransack the sites.

Apologising for his actions at the court, he said he had been overtaken by "evil spirits", urging Muslims not to follow his example, and saying he wanted to seek the pardon of all Malians.

The court found that Mahdi, was a member of the Ansar Drine, one of the jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb which seized the northern territory before being mostly chased out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.

Even though the list of UNESCO world heritage sites appears to be growing, there is little hope that those behind attacks on monuments in Iraq and Syria will find themselves in the dock any time soon.

Neither country is a signatory to the ICC's founding Rome Statute, meaning that without a mandate from the UN Security Council an ICC investigation into such crimes is not yet possible.</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An international court on Tuesday found a Muslim radical guilty of committing a war crime by overseeing the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu, and sentenced him to nine years in prison.

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, a former teacher, had pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for his role in overseeing the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque door by pickax-wielding rebels in June and July of 2012.

His trial, which opened Aug. 22, was a landmark for the International Criminal Court, which has struggled to bring suspects to justice since its establishment in 2002. It was the tribunal’s first conviction for destruction of religious buildings or historic monuments, and the first guilty verdict delivered against a Muslim extremist.

Al-Qaida-linked rebels occupied the fabled Saharan city of Timbuktu in 2012 and enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law that included destruction of the historic mud-brick tombs they considered idolatrous. Al Mahdi was leader of one of the “morality brigades” set up by Timbuktu’s new rulers.

ICC prosecutors said Al Mahdi was a member of Ansar Eddine, an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida that held power in northern Mali in 2012. The militants were driven out after nearly a year by French forces, which arrested Al Mahdi in 2014 in neighboring Niger.

Clad in a gray suit and striped purple tie, the defendant said nothing after the verdict and sentencing. Earlier in the trial, Al Mahdi urged Muslims around the world not to commit acts similar to those he had admitted.

“They are not going to lead to any good for humanity,” he said.

Al Mahdi had faced a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment for destruction of the World Heritage-listed sites. But presiding judge Raul Pangalangan said numerous factors argued for a lesser prison term, including Al Mahdi’s initial reluctance to raze the historic buildings and what the judge called his apparently sincere admission of guilt.</s>An Islamic militant who helped destroy the fabled shrines of Timbuktu has been sentenced to nine years in prison in a landmark case before the international criminal court.

A three-judge bench at the tribunal in The Hague handed down the sentence on Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi – the first from the institution to focus solely on cultural destruction as a war crime.

Observers hope Mahdi’s prosecution will deter others from destroying cultural sites, an act condemned by UN chief Ban Ki-moon as “tearing at the fabric of societies”.

Mahdi is also the first Islamic extremist to appear before the tribunal.

The former junior civil servant last month pleaded guilty to the single charge of “intentionally directing” attacks in 2012 on nine of Timbuktu’s mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the city’s Sidi Yahia mosque.



A slight, bespectacled man with a mop of curly hair, Mahdi asked for the forgiveness of his people as videos were shown of him and other Islamist extremists knocking down ancient earthen shrines with pickaxes and bulldozers after occupying the city, in Mali, after a lightning campaign.

Last week one of the most important shrines damaged by extremists during their rule of the city was opened again to the public and worshippers after restoration.

El-Boukhari Ben Essayouti, who oversaw the reconstruction with Unesco assistance, said Mahdi’s trial was an important lesson.

The trial “has to be useful for something, showing to everyone that in the same way that we cannot kill another person with impunity, we cannot just destroy a world heritage site with impunity either,” he said.

Timbuktu fell initially to Tuareg rebels, part of a coalition of factions backed by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. Islamic militants quickly took control and enforced a harsh version of sharia law, banning music, forcing women to wear the burqa and preventing girls from attending school.

Timbuktu, a major centre of learning and commerce 500 years ago, has long been known for its shrines – the focus of the broadly tolerant, mystic Sufi branch of Islam which is seen as heretical by those who follow literalist doctrines practised in Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia. These were an immediate target for hardliners, as they have been elsewhere in the Muslim world.</s>Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, the Malian Islamic extremist who pleaded guilty to destruction of historic mausoleums in Timbuktu.

War crimes judges on Tuesday sentenced a former Islamist rebel who admitted wrecking holy shrines during Mali’s 2012 conflict to nine years in prison, in the first such case to focus on destruction of cultural heritage.

Human rights groups and international legal experts hope Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi’s case in the International Criminal Court may serve as a deterrent to a kind of devastation that continues to be a feature of global conflicts yet has gone unpunished.

Al-Mahdi expressed remorse for his involvement in the destruction of 10 mausoleums and religious sites in Timbuktu .

The sites, nine of them on the UNESCO World Heritage list, “had an emotional and symbolic meaning for the residents of Timbuktu”, the panel of judges at The Hague said.

By striking at their most meaningful religious sites, al-Mahdi participated in “a war activity aimed at breaking the soul of the people”, said presiding Judge Raul Pangalangan.

Such acts have rarely been prosecuted despite being illegal under international law, but have attracted increasing international outrage after the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan in 2001 and, more recently, Islamic State jihadists smashed monuments in the Syrian city of Palmyra. — Reuters
The International Criminal Court sentences Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in jail for leading the destruction of nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the Malian city's Sidi Yahya Mosque.