{"id":24137,"date":"2016-03-25T01:41:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/mali-rebel-to-admit-timbuktu-mausoleum\/"},"modified":"2016-03-25T01:41:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:41:11","slug":"mali-rebel-to-admit-timbuktu-mausoleum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/mali-rebel-to-admit-timbuktu-mausoleum\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali rebel ‘to admit’ Timbuktu mausoleum destruction at ICC"},"content":{"rendered":"

{An Islamist rebel has said he will plead guilty to destroying religious and cultural sites in the Malian city of Timbuktu, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) say.}<\/p>\n

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi made the admission at an earlier closed hearing, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told ICC judges after they ruled there was enough evidence to put him on trial.<\/p>\n

Mr Mahdi is accused of the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque.
\nIslamists occupied the city in 2012.<\/p>\n

The court has previously heard that Mr Mahdi, a former teacher aged about 40, was a “zealous member” of Ansar Dine, a Tuareg extremist militia with links to al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

He is alleged to have been head of the Hesbah – or what some call the “manners’ brigade” – which enforced strict Islamist law in Timbuktu during the unrest that rocked Mali in 2012 and 2013, and of being involved with and executing the decisions of the so-called Islamic Court of Timbuktu.<\/p>\n

Mr Mahdi – who was handed over by Niger after the ICC issued an arrest warrant – is the first person to face a war crimes charge for the destruction of religious monuments.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Bensouda said his “admission of guilt” would also “be a milestone in the history of the ICC”.<\/p>\n

During their occupation, the militants vandalised and destroyed mosques and mausoleums, and burnt tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts.<\/p>\n

The city – which is listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco – was considered the centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries.<\/p>\n

At one time it counted nearly 200 schools and universities that attracted thousands of students from across the Muslim world.<\/p>\n

The mausoleums were shrines to Timbuktu’s founding fathers, who had been venerated as saints by most of the city’s inhabitants.<\/p>\n

But this practice is considered blasphemous by fundamentalists.<\/p>\n

At least 14 mausoleums have since been rebuilt by local stone masons using traditional techniques.<\/p>\n

{{Treasures of Timbuktu}}<\/p>\n

Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries<\/p>\n

700,000 manuscripts had survived in public libraries and private collections
\nBooks on religion, law, literature and science<\/p>\n

Added to Unesco world heritage list in 1988 for its three mosques and 16 cemeteries and mausoleums<\/p>\n

They played a major role in spreading Islam in West Africa; the oldest dates from 1329<\/p>\n

Islamists destroyed mausoleums after seizing the city in April 2012.<\/p>\n

\"Ahmad<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{An Islamist rebel has said he will plead guilty to destroying religious and cultural sites in the Malian city of Timbuktu, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) say.} Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi made the admission at an earlier closed hearing, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told ICC judges after they ruled there was enough evidence to put […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24137"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24137"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}