Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague found Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi guilty of directing the 2012 attacks on the Unesco world heritage site in northern Mali.

Mahdi "supervised the destruction and gave instructions to the attackers"; presiding judge Raul Pangalangan told the tribunal. "The chamber unanimously finds that Mr al-Mahdi is guilty of the crime of attacking protected sites as a war crime," he added, saying the crime had "significant gravity".

The landmark verdict is the first to focus solely on cultural destruction as a war crime and the first arising out of the conflict in Mali, when jihadists swept into the country's remote north in 2012.

Prosecutors will likely be satisfied having asked for a jail term of between nine and 11 years, which they said would recognise both the severity of the crime and the fact that Mahdi was the first person to plead guilty before the court.

Observers say they hope the sentence will act as a deterrent to those bent on razing the world's cultural heritage, which the UN Chief, Ban Ki-moon, recently condemned for "tearing at the fabric of societies".

In an unprecedented move, Mahdi, aged between 30 and 40, last month pleaded guilty to the single war crimes charge of "intentionally directing" attacks in 2012 on nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the city's Sidi Yahia mosque.

--AFP--