IS Timbuktu mausoleum destruction suspect set to plead guilty

An Islamic radical accused of involvement in destroying historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu goes on trial at the International Criminal Court on Monday and has already told judges he intends to plead guilty.

A swift and relatively straightforward conviction is expected, marking only the fourth conviction since the Hague-based court was established in 2002. If convicted, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi faces a maximum sentence of up to 30 years.

Al Mahdi was a Timbuktu-based expert on Islamic law recruited to enforce Ansar Dine’s strict interpretation of Islam on the occupied Timbuktu, prosecutors told judges at a hearing earlier this year. He allegedly led an organization called the “Hisbah” tasked with upholding public morals and preventing vice.

The radicals destroyed 14 of Timbuktu’s 16 mausoleums because they considered them totems of idolatry. The one-room structures that house the tombs of the city’s great thinkers were on the World Heritage list and most of them have since been restored.

— AP