On March 2, 2016, the International Criminal Court opened its first war crimes trial for the destruction of cultural property. According to a news report, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi is charged with having destroyed “medieval shrines, tombs of Sufi saints and a mosque dating back to the 15th century” during a conflict that displaced over 280,000 people. Al-Mahdi was a leader in the Ansar Dine jihadist organization and is the first member of an Islamic terrorist group to appear before the Court. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda stated, “The charges we have brought against Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi involve most serious crimes . . . They are about the destruction of irreplaceable historic monuments, and they are about a callous assault on the dignity and identity of entire populations, and their religious and historical roots.”