appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

Associated Press

A British citizen was sentenced by an Iraqi court to 15 years in prison after being convicted of attempting to smuggle artefacts out of the country, in a case that has attracted international attention.
The verdict handed down to retired geologist Jim Fitton, shocked the court in Baghdad, including his defence lawyer. He and his family have argued that Fitton, 66, had no criminal intent.
“I thought the worst case scenario would be one year, with suspension,” Fitton’s lawyer Thair Soud, visibly shocked, said on Monday. Soud said Fitton would appeal the verdict.
Fitton’s son-in-law Sam Tasker, 27, told Britain’s PA news agency that his family was devastated at the sentence.
“We are absolutely shattered by this news,” Tasker said. “For a man of Jim’s age, 15 years in an Iraqi prison is tantamount to a death sentence.”
A German national tried with Fitton was found not to have had criminal intent in the case and will be released.
Family plea for British man held in Iraq over pottery fragments
Judge Jabir Abd Jabir found that, according to the government’s investigation, Fitton had criminal intent to smuggle the artefacts that he had picked up and intended to transport them out of the country.
The trial has grabbed international attention at a time when Iraq seeks to open up its nascent tourism sector. The two men first appeared in court on May 15 wearing yellow detainees’ uniforms, telling judges they had not acted with criminal intent and had no idea they might have broken local laws.
Fitton said he “suspected” the items he collected were ancient fragments, but that “at the time I didn’t know about Iraqi laws”, or that taking the shards was not permitted. Fitton said as geologist he was in the habit of collecting such fragments as a hobby and had no intention to sell them.
In his defence, Soud said Fitton waited for weeks while in custody before hiring him as his legal counsel, arguing that this makes the point that the Briton had no idea of the severity of the case or the value of the goods found in his possession.
The judge, however, did not consider Soud’s arguments that laid out Fitton’s ignorance of Iraqi laws and the value of the items he picked up. Fitton and the German national, Volker Waldman, were arrested at Baghdad’s airport on March 20 after airport security discovered the items in their luggage. They had been part of a tourism expedition around the country’s ancient sites.
Their tour guide, also a British citizen who was in his 80s and in poor health, died in police custody for reasons unrelated to his detention. He was found with over 20 archaeological fragments in this possession.

Fitton’s family grew worried when he did not arrive on a scheduled flight back to Kuala Lumpur, where he lives with his wife, on March 20. They later learned that Fitton, a well-traveled geologist for oil and gas companies, had been taken to an airport holding cell where he was still being detained, Fitton’s daughter Leila said last month.
Fitton missed his daughter’s wedding in Malaysia, which took place in early May. Leila said at the time she was “heartbroken” by his absence.
The British diplomatic mission in Baghdad has not commented on its involvement in the case and the British consul in Iraq, who attended the court session Monday, left following the sentencing without making any comments.
British and German tourists deny smuggling antiquities in Iraq
In total, 12 fragments of pottery and other shards were found in Fitton’s possession by Iraqi authorities, all of them collected as souvenirs, Fitton’s family says, during a group tourism expedition to Eridu, an ancient Mesopotamian site in what is now Dhi Qar province. The site is said to be among the oldest sites belonging to that civilisation.
Controversy, however, remains about the items that Fitton had picked up. A report by the Iraqi Culture Ministry stated they were over 200 years old, without offering any further explanation about their provenance. But any item less than 1,500 years old disqualifies it from being from antiquity, a period from the beginnings of Western civilisation to about 450AD.
It wasn’t clear if Fitton can serve out his sentence in his home country. In 2017, Iraq signed a prisoner swap agreement with the UK.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


UAE to leave Opec after 6 decades, oil cartel unity questioned

Why US-led security alliances in Asia are losing coherence

Blinding the world with lies makes peacemaking an impossible task

Iran war is not just a short-term energy disruption

Iraq

Shock as Iraq jails British man Jim Fitton for 15 years over smuggling artefacts

Jim Fitton, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and Volker Waldmann from Germany, who was acquitted. Photo: Reuters

Jim Fitton and his wife Sarijah. Fitton, a 66-year-old retired geologist, is being held in Iraq for allegedly attempting to smuggle historical artefacts out the country. Photo: Jim Fitton

British and German tourists deny smuggling antiquities in Iraq

Briton Jim Fitton, left, and German Volker Waldmann, centre, outside a courtroom in Baghdad, Iraq on May 15. The men are accused of smuggling ancient relics out of Iraq. Photo: AP 

Jim Fitton and his wife Sarijah. Fitton, a 66-year-old retired geologist, is being held in Iraq for allegedly attempting to smuggle historical artefacts out the country. Photo: Fitton family via AP)

Family plea for British man Jim Fitton, held in Iraq over ancient pottery fragments

News

World

Middle East


Iraq court sentences retired geologist Jim Fitton to prison, but his German co-defendant was acquitted
Fitton, who lived in Malaysia, was in possession of fragments picked up at an archaeological site in southern Iraq



An Iraqi court has jailed British retiree Jim Fitton for trying to smuggle antiquities he found on holiday, a judgment his family called ‘tantamount to a death sentence’.


Archaeology and palaeontology