Fifteen years in Iraq jail is death sentence, say geologist’s family
Judge rules that retired Briton acted with criminal intent by trying to smuggle out shards of pottery
THE family of a British geologist jailed for attempting to smuggle pottery shards out of Iraq have said his penalty amounts to a death sentence.
An Iraqi court yesterday told Jim Fitton, 66, he must spend the next 15 years in prison in a verdict that shocked his family and lawyer, who say he had no criminal intent.
“For a man of Jim’s age, 15 years in an Iraqi prison is tantamount to a death sentence,” said his son-in-law, Sam Tasker. “Particularly for such a trivial and dubious crime, a crime that Jim was not even aware of.”
Mr Fitton’s lawyer said the verdict exceeded all expectations. “I thought the worst-case scenario would be one year, with suspension,” Thair Soud told the Associated Press after the ruling in Baghdad.
Mr Fitton, a retired geologist who worked in the oil and gas industry, was arrested at Baghdad airport in March, alongside a German citizen, after 12 pottery fragments and other shards were found in the latter’s bag by security guards. Mr Fitton’s lawyers said that some of the shards were only the size of a fingernail.
The German national, Volker Waldmann, was not found to have acted with criminal intent and will be released after the court heard that he was carrying the objects on behalf of Mr Fitton who had picked up the items during an organised tour.
His family said in a statement that tour guides told Mr Fitton that he could collect the shards and stones as souvenirs at Eridu, the site of an ancient city in southern Iraq, as they had no economic or historic value. “Tour leaders collected the shards,” they said.
However, Judge Jabir Abd Jabir ruled that Mr Fitton – a father of two adult children who is originally from Bath in Somerset but lives in Malaysia with his wife, Sarijah – acted with criminal intent to smuggle antiquities out of Iraq by collecting and packing the artefacts, which a government investigation found were more than 200 years old.
The judge did not consider defence arguments that Mr Fitton was unaware he was breaking the law and that the items were not valuable. Mr Fitton’s family say they will appeal against the sentence and called on the Government to intervene.
“We are completely heartbroken that our own best efforts, a strong legal defence and constant campaigning, have led to this,” said Mr Tasker, who is married to Mr Fitton’s daughter, Leila.
“We are disappointed, indeed stunned, at our own Government’s total lack of action ... we are raising an appeal and will continue to fight for Jim’s freedom, and urge the Government to support us in every way possible and to open lines of communication with us at a senior level.”
In a petition that has attracted nearly 290,000 signatures, the family accused
‘I thought the worst-case scenario would be one year, with suspension’
the Foreign Office (FCDO) of failing to support a call for Iraq to drop the case after he initially faced the death penalty.
Mr Tasker, from Bath, previously told The Daily Telegraph that his father-inlaw was a keen collector of curiosities and said his room was “like something out of Indiana Jones”, with “ink drawings of beautiful architecture from around the world and bookshelves rammed with travel guides”. However, Mr Fitton had “always been hugely respectful of other cultures” and was no criminal, Mr Tasker said.
Since the 2003 Us-led invasion, much of Iraq’s rich cultural heritage has been plundered and thousands of items smuggled out. Islamic State militants, destroyed many heritage sites and funded their activities by selling looted treasure abroad. Baghdad has since cracked down on smuggling, with signs at airports warning it was illegal to take antiquities out of the country.
Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the “sensitive issue tied into concerns about counter-terrorism financing”.
The FCDO did not respond to requests for comment.