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Faqi, a local ethnic Tuareg, is said to have been a member of Ansar Dine
and the head of Hesbah, known as the Manners Brigade, which considered
the mausoleums built to pay homage to deceased saints to be
blasphemous.
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Around 4,000 ancient manuscripts were also lost, stolen or burned during
the Islamists reign of terror. Ansar Dine was pushed out of Timbuktu in
2013 when French forces intervened. Faqi was arrested in neighbouring
Niger and sent to the Netherlands last September.
At his first remand appearance, Faqi said: I am from the Tuareg tribe. I
was born about 40 years ago. I am a graduate of the teachers institute in
Timbuktu and I was a civil servant in the education department
beginning in 2011.
There is growing resentment among African states that the UN-backed ICC
has concentrated its prosecutions on the continent a development that is
partially a consequence of the United States, Russia and most of the Middle
East failing to join the court. The ruling ANC party in South Africa has voted
to leave the ICC.
Faqi is the first person the ICC has put on trial for the Mali conflict. There
has been criticism that no major figure in the Tuareg uprising has been
charged.
The Open Society Justice Initiative in New York said there had been a
previous case brought by the ICC for destroying buildings following the
conflict in the Congo. Bosco Ntaganda, the former Congolese militia leader,
was charged with destroying a church and a hospital, along with more
serious crimes.
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But this is the first time this has been the main charge against a suspect, or
when the property destroyed has had global cultural significance, said
Jonathan Birchall, of the initiative. Al-Faqi is also the first member of an
Islamist armed group to appear before the court.
More than 350,00 people were displaced by the conflict. Unesco has
alreadyrebuilt many of the mausoleums that were destroyed in Timbuktu.