Photograph — www.ibtimes.com

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has convicted Ahmad Al-Faqi Al-Mahdi for “intentionally directing attacks against religious and historic buildings in Timbuktu, Mali,” four years ago.

On Tuesday, the Trial Chamber VIII of the ICC eventually found Al-Mahdi guilty of war crimes brought against him and sentenced him to nine years imprisonment. According to a statement by the ICC, “in order to sufficiently and adequately reflect the moral and economic harm suffered by the victims of the case and fulfil the objectives of sentencing, the Chamber imposed a sentence that it deemed  proportionate to the gravity of the crime and the individual circumstances and culpability of Mr Al Mahdi.”

In 2012, the internal conflict in Mali saw two major armed groups – the Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – take control of Timbuktu, a northern city of Mali. From then until January 2013, Ansar Dine and AQIM imposed their religious and political edicts on the region of Tombouctou. During the reigns of these groups, Al Mahdi played vital and active roles; “he led the Hesbah [a morality brigade that enforced the doctrines of the two groups] from its creation in April 2012 until September 2012 and wrote a document on its role and objectives,” the ICC said.

Between June 30 and July 11, 2012, the ICC said Al-Mahdi, “supervised the execution of the operations, using the Hesbah‘s members and determining the sequence in which the buildings would be destroyed, making the necessary logistical arrangements and justifying the attack to the broader world through media interviews.”

The buildings that were attacked by Al-Mahdi and his members in Timbuktu were mostly United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites. According to UNESCO, the “mosques and mausoleums are outstanding witnesses to the urban establishment of Timbuktu, its important role of commercial, spiritual and cultural centre on the southern trans-Saharan trading route, and its traditional characteristic construction techniques …sixteen mausoleums and holy public places, still bear witness to this prestigious past.”

Al-Mahdi’s actions contravene the provisions of the Rome Statutes of the ICC and amounted to a war crime. His action is similar to that of the militants in the Middle East. There are reports that all the six UNESCO World Heritage sites in Syria have either been damaged or destroyed during the civil war. The Islamic State believes historical objects and sites it destroyed were not in line with its ideology.

Many people also think the terrorist group gains better attention when it attacks world heritage sites. Al-Mahdi’s conviction by the ICC is very symbolic to the campaign against the destructive actions of the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq; this conviction shows the world is now more willing than ever before to prosecute the destroyers of cultural heritage, including the ISIS.

The importance of cultural heritage cannot be underestimated; they are expressions of the past in the present and modern world, that inspire. The destruction of these sites is similar to destroying human memories and its values. Significantly, the trial and eventual conviction of Al-Mahdi at the ICC was the first-ever prosecution of the destruction of cultural heritage. It is a highly commendable development that will hopefully discourage deliberate destruction of structures of social value now and in the future.

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