Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi (also known as Abu Tourab) was a member of

Ansar Dine Ansar Dine ( ar, أنصار الدين ''ʾAnṣār ad-Dīn'', also transliterated ''Ançar Deen''; meaning " helpers of the religion" (Islam) also known as Ansar al-Din (abbreviated as AAD) was a Salafi jihadist group led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. An ...

, a

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Al ...

Islamist militia in North Africa. Al-Mahdi admitted guilt in the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to pro ...

(ICC) in 2016 for the war crime of attacking religious and historical buildings in the

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

an city of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

. Al-Mahdi was the first person convicted by the ICC for such a crime, and in general the first individual to ever be prosecuted solely on the basis of cultural crimes. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Biography

Al-Mahdi was born approximately in 1975 in Agoune,

, which is 97 km west of

.Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi: The vandal of Timbuktu
BBC News (September 27, 2016). In 2011, he was a civil servant in the Malian government. He is an ethnic

and during the

Northern Mali conflict {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Mali War , partof = the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel and the War on terror , image = MaliWar.svg , image_size = 380 , caption = Military situation ...

, that began in 2012, he was a member of

. Al-Mahdi worked closely with the leaders of

and

al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to o ...

, when the two groups controlled Timbuktu. Specifically, he enforced decisions of the Islamic Court of Timbuktu and from May to September 2012, he ran the "Manners' Brigade".

ICC prosecution

The ICC opened a formal investigation on

, after referral of the situation by Mali to the Prosecutor, on 16 January 2013 to investigate alleged crimes, that occurred since January 2012 in the context of an armed conflict in the north of the country. The court issued an arrest warrant for al-Mahdi on 18 September 2015. The arrest warrant alleges, that from about 30 June 2012 to 10 July 2012 in

, al-Mahdi committed the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against historical monuments or buildings dedicated to religion. The case against al-Mahdi represented the first time, the ICC had indicted an individual for the war crime of attacking religious buildings or historical monuments and it was the first case, before the ICC arising out of the situation in

. The arrest warrant listed ten monuments in

, at least one of which is a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

, that al-Mahdi attacked: # Mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Omar Mohamed Aquit # Mausoleum of Sheikh Mohamed Mahmoud al-Arawani # Mausoleum of Sheikh Sidi el-Mokhtar Ben Sidi Muhammad Ben Sheikh Alkabir # Mausoleum of Alfa Moya # Mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar # Mausoleum of Sheikh Muhammad El Micky # Mausoleum of Cheick Abdoul Kassim Attouaty # Mausoleum of Ahamed Fulane # Mausoleum of Bahaber Babadié #

Sidi Yahya Mosque The Sidi Yahya Mosque (), also known as the Mosque of Muhammad-n-Allah, is a mosque and madrasa of Timbuktu in Mali. The construction of the mosque began in 1400 under the leadership of Sheikh el-Mokhtar Hamalla of Timbuktu and was finished ...

On 26 September 2015, al-Mahdi was surrendered to the court by the

government of Niger The government of Niger is the apparatus through which authority functions and is exercised: the governing apparatus of Nigerien state. The current system of governance, since the Constitution of 25 November 2010, is termed the Seventh Republic ...

and transferred to the court's detention center in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Al-Mahdi's trial began on 22 August 2016 and he pleaded guilty to the charges of destroying nine

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...

s and a mosque. As the first person to plead guilty to a charge of the ICC, al-Mahdi made a statement expressing remorse and advising others not to commit similar acts. On 27 September 2016, al-Mahdi was sentenced to nine years in prison for the destruction of the cultural world heritage in the Malian city of

. In a subsequent Reparations Order of 17 August 2017, the ICC ordered individual, collective and symbolic

reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from ...

for the community of Timbuktu. The liability of al-Mahdi was determined to be 2.7 million euros.''The Prosecutor v Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi'' (Reparations Order
ICC01/12-01/15
(17 August 2017).

References

External links

Summary of the Judgment and Sentence in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi
ICC, 2016)
Case Information Sheet: Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi
(ICC, 2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahdi, Ahmad al-Faqi al- 1975 births Living people Malian Islamists People convicted by the International Criminal Court People detained by the International Criminal Court People extradited from Niger People from Tombouctou Region People indicted for war crimes Tuareg people Berber Malians 21st-century Malian people