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Related: About this forum'I am sorry': Islamist apologises for destroying Timbuktu mausoleums
Source: The Guardian
'I am sorry': Islamist apologises for destroying Timbuktu mausoleums
Ahmad al-Mahdi faces up to 11 years in jail after becoming
first international criminal court defendant to enter a guilty plea
Ruth Maclean West Africa correspondent
Monday 22 August 2016 13.32 BST
The first defendant to plead guilty at the international criminal court has apologised to Mali and to mankind for destroying religious monuments in the ancient city of Timbuktu.
Ahmad al-Mahdi admitted directing the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque door in 2012, when Timbuktu was controlled by rebels and members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
At the opening of his trial for war crimes in The Hague, he expressed his deep regret to the people of Timbuktu, to whom the monuments had been of great religious and cultural importance.
I seek their forgiveness and I ask them to look at me as a son who has lost his way, he said. Those who forgive me will be rewarded by the almighty. I would like to make them a solemn promise that this was the first and the last wrongful act I will ever commit.
Wearing a grey suit, blue shirt and tie and glasses, his long curly hair slicked back, Mahdi said he drew on Islamic teachings to enter his guilty plea. We need to speak justice even to ourselves. We have to be truthful, even if it burns our own hands, he said.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Ahmad al-Mahdi faces up to 11 years in jail after becoming
first international criminal court defendant to enter a guilty plea
Ruth Maclean West Africa correspondent
Monday 22 August 2016 13.32 BST
The first defendant to plead guilty at the international criminal court has apologised to Mali and to mankind for destroying religious monuments in the ancient city of Timbuktu.
Ahmad al-Mahdi admitted directing the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque door in 2012, when Timbuktu was controlled by rebels and members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
At the opening of his trial for war crimes in The Hague, he expressed his deep regret to the people of Timbuktu, to whom the monuments had been of great religious and cultural importance.
I seek their forgiveness and I ask them to look at me as a son who has lost his way, he said. Those who forgive me will be rewarded by the almighty. I would like to make them a solemn promise that this was the first and the last wrongful act I will ever commit.
Wearing a grey suit, blue shirt and tie and glasses, his long curly hair slicked back, Mahdi said he drew on Islamic teachings to enter his guilty plea. We need to speak justice even to ourselves. We have to be truthful, even if it burns our own hands, he said.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/22/islamic-extremist-pleads-guilty-at-icc-to-timbuktu-cultural-destruction
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'I am sorry': Islamist apologises for destroying Timbuktu mausoleums (Original Post)
Eugene
Aug 2016
OP
Just do your time asshole, and hopefully the world will never hear of you again.
Marengo
Aug 2016
#3
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,664 posts)1. So I guess he's, like, the Ryan Lochte of Timbuktu. NT
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)2. Too many unknowns
for me to make a judgement. On the one hand, he may regret his actions. On the other hand, he directed the action as a leader. That judgement now belongs to the Hague.
Marengo
(3,477 posts)3. Just do your time asshole, and hopefully the world will never hear of you again.
Festivito
(13,452 posts)4. I can accept that's an apology, cut his time in jail in half to 500 years. 100 with good behavior.