Judges at the International Criminal Court ruled, on Thursday, that a former Islamist rebel who was jailed for wrecking holy sites in Timbuktu was liable for damages of 3.2 million dollars.
Amad Al-Mahdi was jailed for nine years in 2016 after pleading guilty to war crimes for his involvement in the destruction of 10 mausoleums and religious sites in Timbuktu.
The sites date from Mali’s 14th-century golden age as a trading hub and center of Sufi Islam, a branch of the religion seen as idolatrous by some hard-line Muslim groups.
Judges in the Sept. 27, 2016 sentenced Al-Mahdi who admitted wrecking holy shrines during Mali’s 2012 conflict to nine years in prison.
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.
Several sites were razed to the ground or badly damaged and needed to be completely rebuilt.
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.
Specifically, the judges said, he “exercised joint control over the attacks” by planning, leading and participating in them, supplying pick-axes and in one case a bulldozer.
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.
Those acts have not been investigated by the ICC because Syria is not a member of the court and the destruction in Afghanistan predates the court’s jurisdiction.
Instead, prosecutors at the ICC have largely focused on war crimes in African states, earning the 14-year-old court criticism for not going after more politically challenging hotspots, such as the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ICC has been examining events in Mali since 2012, when Tuareg rebels seized part of the north, imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
French and Malian troops pushed them back the following year.
During his brief trial in August al-Mahdi asked for forgiveness and said he had been swept up in an “evil wave” when al Qaeda and the Ansar Dine Islamist groups briefly seized control of the ancient sites.
Prosecutors and the defense had agreed beforehand to accept a sentence of nine to 11 years for the former religious teacher, who sat quietly in a gray suit, nodding as the verdict was read aloud. (Reuters/NAN)