ICC to issue reparation order for Timbuktu mausoleums destruction

The destruction of World’s / Africa’s historical heritage tucked in Mali’s Timbuktu will soon get reprieve as the International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to issue order for compensation for destruction of the tombs.

Agency reports said that the International Criminal Court will on Thursday issue an order for compensation for the destruction of mausoleums in Timbuktu, by Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a Malian Jihadist.

But it is unclear what compensation the judges at the Hague-based Court will agree on come Thursday, a concern for the Victims Trust Fund, who warned that the expectations of victims should be “carefully maintained” in order to avoid some unrealistic expectations.

This order will constitute the second reparations order in the history of the Court established in 2002 to prosecute alleged perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Al-Mahdi was sentenced to nine years in prison in September with judges hoping this would discourage any other destruction of world heritage sites.

During the trial, the 40-year old Islamic militant leader pleaded guilty and asked for forgiveness for directing attacks on nine mausoleums and the door of the Sidi Yahia mosque in 2012, when the Malian city of Timbuktu was occupied by several militant groups.

Born around 1975, he was a member of Ansar Dine, one of the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups that controlled northern Mali for about ten months in 2012, before being largely driven out by international intervention Triggered in January 2013 by France.

As leader of the Hisbah, the Islamic brigade of morals, he had ordered and participated in the attacks against the mausoleums, destroyed by picks, hoes and chisels.

His trial was the first organized at the ICC for the destruction of cultural property and treated as a war crime.

And his condemnation is “a warning … that this is a serious crime,” said prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

The ICC order also has “the potential to bring hope to victims of similar crimes committed in other parts of the world,” such as the destruction of Palmyra, Syria, and other historical sites in Iraq by the Islamic State group, she added.