the International Criminal Court, admitting his guilt for the destruction μαυσωλείων in Timbuktu that are included in the World Cultural Heritage, and called on muslims not to imitate the “evil” acts.
The trial of the Tuareg Mohammed Al or sister … … Al Mahdi, which is expected to last a week, is the first carried out for the destruction of cultural heritage, the first which a defendant admits his guilt, the first for a τζιχαντιστή and the first has to do with the conflict in Mali.
“Mr. President, with sadness I say that everything I have heard up to now is true and describe actual events, I admit my guilt,” said the 40-year-old Al-Mahdi, after the reading of the charges. “I apologize and I ask them to consider me a child who lost his way”.
“I stand before you in this courtroom full of remorse and regret,” he added: “I’m devastated for my actions and all of these prejudices, for that which I have caused to my favorite persons, my brothers, to the mother country, the Republic of Mali, and to the members of humanity on the four corners of the planet”.
Al Mahdi, who came through the dunes of the Sahara to those of the North Sea, on the shores of which is the ICC, is accused of “intentionally directing attacks” against nine μαυσωλείων in Timbuktu and against the gate of the mosque Sidi Γιάχια between 30 June and 11 July 2012.
The defendant, who wore a suit to the court, promised that “this is the mistake that I committed would be the first and the last”.
Timbuktu, founded in the 5th century by tribes Tuareg, drawing prosperity from the trade with the caravans, became a great centre of intellect of Islam and met its peak in the 15th century.
The Al-Mahdi turned from a very young age in the study of the qur’an. This former school director described the area as a “timid man” who became the “town sheriff”.
As the leader of the Χίσμπαχ, the islamic brigade of vice, allegedly ordered and participated in attacks against the μαυσωλείων, which the extremists destroyed with pickaxes and hoes.
The prosecution shows that the man was a member of the Î†Î½ÏƒÎ±Ï Dean, which was one of the τζιχαντιστικÎÏ‚ organisations which have connections with Al Qaeda and controlled northern Mali for almost ten months in 2012, before a large part of them driven out by the forces of the international intervention that began in January 2013.
The prosecution agreed with the defense, will ask for a sentence of between 9 and 11 years of age, said a member of the prosecutor’s office.
The defendant undertook not to appeal if the judgment is “at that scale”, said one of his lawyers, Jean-Louis ΖιλισÎν.
Al Mahdi also stated that at that time was “under the influence of a group of leading members of Al-Qaeda and Î‘Î½ÏƒÎ±Ï Dean, I had to succumb to the pressure as in a windstorm”.
“I still have to send a message to all the muslims of the whole world: to resist this kind of actions of which the consequences have no boundaries and from which no benefits”, he stressed.
The apology of a τζιχαντιστή for the destruction μαυσωλείων – “I Ask to consider me a child who lost his way”
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