A retired British geologist has been sentenced by an Iraqi court to 15 years in prison for attempting to smuggle artifacts out of Iraq. Bath, England resident Jim Fitton, 66, collected 12 stones and shards of broken pottery from the Eridu archaeological site in southern Iraq. He was arrested at Baghdad airport last March, alongside German tourist Volker Waldmann, who was arrested on the same charges.
Waldmann, who had 10 of the 12 artifacts when he was arrested, was acquitted of the charges and will be released. Fitton said he did not know he was breaking Iraqi laws.
While Fitton’s conviction could have carried a death sentence, the judge in the case said he was applying a reduced sentence “because of the advanced age of the accused.”
But the 15-year sentence might as well have been death, according to Fitton’s son-in-law. “For a man of Jim’s age, 15 years in an Iraqi prison is tantamount to a death sentence,” he said. “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,” he added.
Fitton’s lawyer, Thair Soud, said he was expecting a much lower sentence for his client. “I thought the worst-case scenario would be one year, with suspension,” he said.