A jihadist from Mali has been ordered to pay $3.2 million in damages for his role in destroying 14th century Timbuktu shrines in 2012 in a landmark ruling by the International Criminal Court. Judges said that the victims of the Malian city’s destruction be compensated with “individual, collective and symbolic” reparations particularly those who relied on the sites for tourism income. Ahmad Al-Faqi Al-Mahdi directed the attacks on nine mausoleums and a mosque door in mid-2012 with pickaxes and bulldozers. It came as Tuareg rebels captured parts of northern Mali in 2012 before being ousted by a military operation a year later. Eric Feferberg/AFP/GettyThe Malian sites, most of them on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, date from the 14th century when Mali served as a center for Sufi Islam, a peaceful branch of Islam that radical Islamists view to be heretical.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 17, 2017 12:11 UTC