The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday declassified the arrest warrant for Iyad Ag Ghali , alleged leader of the Islamist group “Defenders of the Faith” (Ansar Dine), which in 2012 captured Timbuktu in Northern Mali, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Ghali, also known as Abu Fadl, is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity between January 2012 and January 2013, the court said. The warrant for his arrest was issued in 2017 in a sealed envelope, but was only released today.
After the group “Defenders of the Faith“ took over Timbuktu, she tried to impose sharia there. In previous ICC cases against other members of the group, prosecutors said they subjected women in Timbuktu to rape and sexual slavery.
The "Al Qaeda" fighters also used picks, shovels and hammers to destroy clay tombs and centuries-old shrines reflecting the Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu, known as the "City of 333 Saints,", Reuters recalled.
In 2016, the International Criminal Court sentenced an Islamist rebel to nine years in prison after he pleaded guilty to involvement in the destruction of religious monuments in Timbuktu. A second Malian suspect is due to hear the verdict in his case before the ICC next Wednesday.
The ICC, the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, has been investigating the events in Mali since 2012. The following year, French and Malian troops pushed the rebels back, Reuters recalls.