The recent prosecution of a war criminal in the International Criminal Court was aided, in part, by a grant from the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was convicted this week in the ICC for directing armed groups from Ansar Eddine, a movement associated with al Qaeda, to destroy UNESCO World Heritage sites in Timbuktu, Mali. Al-Mahdi, 41, pleaded guilty to the charges in the 2012 ravaging of the 13th-century mausoleums. Al-Mahdi was sentenced with nine years in prison.

The prosecutor illustrated the damage that was done through a new digital platform designed by the New York firm Situ Research. The platform was built with grant money from the MacArthur Foundation and the Geneva-based Oak Foundation.

The platform was used primarily to display evidence -- photos, videos, maps and diagrams -- in a streamlined manner to the international Criminal Court. The assets uploaded to the platform were found on the web, and given context with panoramic shots and diagrams.