Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, also known as Abou Tourab, was an Ansar Dine commander during the Malian Civil War. On 22 August 2016, he pled guilty to destroying cultural artifacts before the International Criminal Court, leading to him serving to up to 30 years in prison.
Biography[]
Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was born in Mali to a Sunni Muslim Tuareg family, and he joined the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Dine militant group during the Malian Civil War. al-Mahdi became a commander of the group in the city of Timbuktu, and he was responsible for the destruction of cultural and religious sites in Timbuktu from June to July 2012 as the head of the hisbah (religious police). On 26 September 2015, he was surrendered over to the International Criminal Court by the government of Niger, and he was transferred to the ICC's detention center in The Hague, Netherlands in Europe. On 22 August 2016, he pled guilty to the attack on the cultural and religious sites in Timbuktu, and he felt remorse, saying that he hoped that his prison time would be a time of healing for those in Timbuktu, and he discouraged Malians from becoming jihadists like him.