ICC hands 9-yr jail term to Mali jihadist
War crimes judges yesterday sentenced a Malian jihadist to nine years in jail for destroying the fabled shrines of Timbuktu, in a landmark ruling experts hope will help safeguard the world's vulnerable monuments.
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague found Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi guilty of directing the 2012 attacks on the Unesco world heritage site in northern Mali.
The landmark verdict is the first to focus solely on cultural destruction as a war crime and the first arising out of the conflict in Mali, when jihadists swept into the country's remote north in 2012.
Unesco applauded the ICC for jailing the Malian jihadist, calling the sentence a "landmark" decision for the preservation of heritage.
Prosecutors will likely be satisfied having 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 for "tearing at the fabric of societies".
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