23/08/2016 (Agence Europe) – As the trial at the International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) opened on Monday 22 August of Ahmed al-Faqi al-Mahdi, who has admitted destroying the Timbuktu mausoleums in Mali, the European Union stressed the importance of the trial as, for the first time in the ICT's history, it is holding a trial for war crimes involving the destruction of cultural heritage in the city of 33 saints. The opening of this historic trial will encourage implementation of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, of which tackling impunity is an integral part, a spokesman for the European External Action Service said in a press release. Pointing out that these crimes, committed during the jihadi occupation of northern Mali in 2012, were an attack on the identity and religious values of local communities, the EU states that its intervention in Mali includes the rehabilitation and protection of the cultural heritage of Timbuktu. (AN)