The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Iyad Ag Ghaly, the alleged leader of the Ansar Dine Islamist group that took control of Timbuktu in northern Mali in 2012.
Ghaly, also known as Abou Fadl, is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity between January 2012 and January 2013, according to the court. The arrest warrant was initially issued under seal in 2017 but was made public only on Friday.
After Ansar Dine seized Timbuktu, the group attempted to impose sharia law. In previous ICC cases against other Ansar Dine members, prosecutors reported that the group subjected women in Timbuktu to rape and sexual slavery. The al Qaeda-linked fighters also used pick-axes, shovels, and hammers to destroy earthen tombs and centuries-old shrines that represented Timbuktu’s Sufi version of Islam, earning the city its nickname, the “City of 333 Saints.”
In 2016, one Islamist rebel received a nine-year sentence from the ICC after pleading guilty to participating in the destruction of Timbuktu’s religious monuments. A second Malian suspect is scheduled 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 events in Mali since 2012. French and Malian troops pushed the rebels back the following year.