[JURIST] Nigerian authorities on Saturday turned over to the International Criminal Court [ICC press release] an Islamic extremist wanted for his role in the 2012 destruction of religious and historically significant monuments in Timbuktu, Mali. Ahmad Al Mahdi Al Faqi, also known as Abu Tourab, was surrendered to the ICC’s detention center in the Netherlands, fulfilling an arrest warrant issued in mid-September. Al Faqi is alleged to be a member of Ansar Dine [BBC backgrounder], an extremist group with ties to al Qaeda, and is suspected to have played a significant role in the group’s destruction of 14 of the city’s 16 mausoleums. After over a year of conflict, French forces were able to recover the city from Ansar Dine’s grasp, which allowed the UN to restore the mausoleums.

Malian Justice Minister Malick Coulibaly said in July 2012 that he would ask [JURIST report] the ICC to open an investigation into the destruction of Timbuktu’s mausoleums. Minister Coulibaly’s announcement came after ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters [JURIST report] that attacks by Islamist rebels on religious monuments in Mali would not be tolerated and destruction of tombs of ancient Muslim saints in Timbuktu likely amounted to war crimes. Conflicts in Timbuktu took place against a background of significant domestic turmoil, as Malian soldiers took control of the government and suspended the constitution in March of that year, leading to what Amnesty International characterized as the nation’s worst human rights crisis [JURIST reports] since it gained independence in 1960.