The Art Newspaper | Anny Shaw:
In the first case of its kind, the alleged Malian jihadi leader Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi is due to stand trial on 1 March, accused of war crimes for ordering the demolition of historic monuments. Al-Faqi is charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague with razing nine mausoleums and the 15th-century Sidi Yahia mosque in Timbuktu in northern Mali. The court, established in 1998 through the signing of the Rome Statute, has never before dealt with the destruction of cultural heritage as a war crime… Read more
Image: A man holds a burnt manuscript in Timbuktu, 31 January 2013. Photo: © UNESCO Bureau of Mali