Cleared, British geologist jailed by Iraqis for ‘smuggling out pottery shards’
Family’s joy as 66-year-old has his conviction quashed
A RETIRED British geologist sentenced to 15 years in an Iraqi prison will soon be reunited with his family after seeing his conviction quashed.
Jim Fitton, 66, was jailed for trying to smuggle ancient artefacts out of the country after collecting 12 pottery shards and stones on an organised tour to Eridu, an ancient Mesopotamian city in southern Iraq.
He was arrested at Baghdad airport in March and charged under a law against ‘intentionally taking or trying to take out of Iraq an antiquity’.
He was sentenced on June 6 and launched an appeal more than a month ago.
Last night, his son-in-law Sam Tasker, 27, told the Daily Mail: ‘The appeal court in Iraq has published the verdict and Jim’s lawyer has told us what it said. It effectively says they’ve overturned the original verdict and recognised Jim’s innocence.
‘As far as we know he’s still in prison. We’ve been given a rough timeline for his release of by the end of the week. For the first time since March, we are smiling without irony.’
Mr Tasker, husband of Mr Fitton’s daughter Leila, 31, said the family were ‘over the moon’ after hearing the news, but were ‘trying to remain fairly grounded until he is actually home’.
He was speaking from Malaysia, where father of two Mr Fitton, originally from Bath, lives with wife Sarijah.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Fitton’s lawyer Thaer Saoud told the
AFP news agency that the conviction and sentence had been ‘overturned today by the Court of Cassation [court of last resort] and my client will soon be free’.
Mr Fitton has repeatedly insisted he did not intend to smuggle the items, and that those on the tour were told the shards had no economic or historical value.
He also explained how he collected such fragments as a hobby. He was arrested alongside a German tourist, Volker Waldmann, after airport security staff discovered the items in their luggage. Both men pleaded not guilty.
Mr Waldmann’s defence team said he had been carrying the pieces for Mr Fitton but did not pick them up from the site. He was released by the court.
Judge Jabir Abd Jabir found that by picking up the items and intending to transport them out of the country, Mr Fitton had criminal intent to smuggle them. The judge did not consider the arguments of Mr Fitton’s lawyer that he was ignorant of Iraqi laws and the value of the items.
The verdict shocked the court in Baghdad, including Mr Saoud, who had expected a suspended jail term at worst.
The maximum sentence for the offence is death, but Mr Fitton was sentenced to 15 years because of his ‘advanced age’, the judge in the original trial said.
Iraqi officials said the death sentence had only been a remote possibility.
After the sentencing, Mr Tasker lambasted the British Government for what he said was its ‘total lack of action in this case to date’.
He said that for a man of his father-in-law’s age ‘15 years in an Iraqi prison is tantamount to a death sentence’.
Last night, a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are providing consular assistance to a British national in Iraq, and continue to support his family. We are in contact with the local authorities.’
‘We are over the moon’