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A MALIAN JIHADIST will seek forgiveness from his people for attacking the world heritage site of Timbuktu when he pleads guilty at an unprecedented case before an international war crimes court, his lawyer said this week.
Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi will become the first person to admit to war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague at a joint hearing and sentencing due to be held in the coming months.
He stands accused of jointly ordering or carrying out the destruction of nine mausoleums and a section of Timbuktu’s famous Sidi Yahia mosque, a UNESCO-protected world heritage site dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
Mahdi is the first jihadist suspect to appear before the ICC and the first person to be solely charged with war crimes for an attack on a global historic and cultural monument.
Mahdi, who is aged around 40, had told his defence lawyer, Mohamed Aouini, he was “a Muslim who believes in justice.”
“He wants to be truthful to himself and he wants to admit the acts that he has committed,” Aouini told a hearing at the ICC Tuesday.
And he wants to ask at the same time for pardon from the people of Timbuktu and the Malian people.
“He regrets all the actions that he has committed,” Aouini added.
Destroying ancient shrines
Mahdi will admit a single charge of “the war crime of attacking buildings dedicated to religion and historic monuments” in 2012, when many of the ancient shrines were destroyed.
Reuters reported at the time that Jihadist Islamists in Timbuktu had destroyed a number of important world heritage sites in a bid erase all traces of what they regarded as un-Islamic idolatry.
The Jihadists broke down the doors to the Sidi Yahya Mosque – which locals had said must be remained shut until the end of the world.
Mahdi’s prosecution comes amid a global outcry over the razing by the so-called Islamic State group of sites in Iraq and Syria that bear testament to the world’s collective history.
ICC prosecutors say Mahdi was a leader of Ansar Dine, a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali’s northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and a third local group in early 2012.
Judge Raul Pangalangan said the court had hoped to open the trial in mid-June, but both the defence and prosecutors asked for longer to prepare, and suggested 25 August.
Pangalangan said judges were “willing to accommodate a request” to start the trial after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr which ends the fasting month of Ramadan in early July.
“However the chamber emphasises that this trial needs to proceed expeditiously,” he warned, appearing to signal that late August was too far away. The judges will issue a decision on the trial’s start date later.
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I am coming around to the opinion that instead of stopping these idiots going to Syria , we should be flying them out to “paradise”. Mosul has water and electricity 3 hours a day, food is in short supply and there is constant fighting, It’s a long way form Rochdale and seeing as TV is banned, music is banned unless it’s religious, smoking is banned, food must be muslim prepared. IS burned 2 truck loads of halal chicken recently because it came from the US.
If someone wants to go to this sort of hell I say let them off because if they are of that mindset then why would you want them living next door to you? It would be a case of “Here we are, the Islamic State now give me your passport and don’t come back!”
Gotta lurve that multi-culturism!
They were trying to bring children there. You can’t allow that. Also some of the people who went there – I’m thinking of those three Muslim girls – are simply too immature to be able to make any kind of sensible decision. They absolutely have to be headed off at the pass if possible.
As for the rest -adults- I hear what you’re saying: they’re able to make their own decisions. However there is a huge danger that they’d return even more messed up then when they left and they’d pose a huge risk for a suicide bomb or something similar.
And yet we let the Halawas, some of whom were children at the time, head off jihading and our border gardai failed to stop them. All who go should not be let back. Let them savour the joys of sharia in its magnificence.
I’m probably going to get lambasted for this, but here goes. Right now I wouldn’t trust any male followers of Islam, especially the younger ones. The radicalization of followers of Islam right now worldwide is more than just contagious, it’s an epidemic.
I wholeheartedly agree Stephen!
Thank you Rachel, I just honestly believe that as far as Islam is concerned, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
I disagree. If we tar all Muslims with the same brush we do them an injustice. Remember the British thought the same about the irish in the 70s & 80s. Islamic groups are trying to overcome islamic extremists although its an uphill battle. Groups like Quilliam are the future of a modern islam. Their views on islam & islamists are fresh & encouraging.
“Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace”
John Lennon.
Thats completely wrong Stephen and unfair. Muslim people in Ireland are our work colleagues, our neighbours our children’s friends and our friends. Its extremely unfair to alienate and isolate them with attitudes like that. I can understand the attitude though as all the media does is paint them in a bad light. We should know better considering our history.
i really don’t think thats correct. it all depends on how happy and contented they feel in their home country. india has 180 million muslims, number but around odd 80 have gone to fight with ISIS. Also Indian muslim leaders have repeatedly preached against ISIS.
It’s jihad, innit, bruv….
Modern and Islam in the same sentence ! , is that a first ?
@mjhint – Brigitte Gabriel explains why your comment is a naïve one.
http://youtu.be/Ry3NzkAOo3s
@ronan stokes – It’s not about what the media says, rather, it’s about what the Koran says…
http://youtu.be/Ry3NzkAOo3s
I’ve seen this many times. It doesn’t explain any naivety in my comment. You obviously know little about Quilliam I suggest you look it up. It maybe the future of islam. Its a change we can all embrace.
@Mjhint – Islam is about what the Koran instructs, not about what such groups claim it to instruct. You as an unbeliever must submit to Islam it says. You are inferior to them in every way and must give way to them in every way – if necessary, with your life. Islam is actively working to deceive you and others like you as it’s strategy to dominate you and the society you have grown up in. It’s ultimate goal is to take over. It is all laid out in the Koran in black and white, whether you want to believe it or not. So, keep putting your faith in the group you mentioned if that gives you comfort. It changes nothing. Go ahead and embrace it as you say…
Cancel his passport and leave him there .
Cancel their passports.
Id go on as to say let them enter Syria then cancel there passports so they cant get back out and on to a plane ever again
I don’t believe for a second the Labour coucillor had ‘no idea’ about his son’s inclinations. Just last week a story emerged in which a father in the Uk whose son had joined Isis and also claimed to have ‘no idea’ was pictured at Islamist rallies organised by hate preacher Anjem Choudary ripping up a British flag.
The seed is usually planted at home and in the mosque from a young age and British Muslims are usually encouraged from a young age to have disdain for the kuffir.
He would report his son to the authorities? I highly doubt that, as the saying goes blood is thicker than water!
2-5 years in a British jail or 205 minutes on the battlefield. Hardly a hard choice for any parent.
Just goes to show you never know where these nut cases come from. .
Tallagh? ?!!
Allowing large numbers of Muslim into Europe is nothing else but planting Trojan Horse.
Nigel Farage likes this.
I will be arresting and questioning there parents. Don’t for one second believe they don’t know where there kids are.
Generally Irish people are open and welcoming. Indeed we have that reputation worldwide and I like that as one of our national characteristics.
However, one of the downsides is that we now have absolutely no idea who we have living in our towns and villages.
We cannot and should not be afraid to stand up and ask for our immigration laws to be tightened in the face of this.
‘my son is a good muslim’..well there’s your problem right there!
If the son was a good muslim, he would have stayed well away from ISIS
A ‘good’ muslim must follow the example of Mohammad.
But Mohammad was a war-monger who murdered thousands of innocent people, simply for not converting to his new ‘Islam’
Mohammad also had a child ‘bride’ called Aisha bint Abu Bakr, – she was nine years old when Mohammad first had full intercourse with her, He was 54yo.
Muslims must look upon Mohammad as the ‘perfect example’ (insan al-khemi) – to follow.
This seems to fit in with Worldwide Islamic atrocities.
have your say