British geologist sentenced to 15 years in prison for smuggling artefacts from Iraq

A retired British geologist, Jim Fitton, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Iraq for trying to smuggle artefacts out of the country. The 66-year-old geologist was arrested in March at Baghdad International Airport after customs found fragments of ancient pottery and 12 stones in his baggage.

According to statements from customs officers, his baggage had about a dozen stone fragments, pieces of pottery or ceramics. A German national named Volker Waldmann was also arrested along with Fitton.

They were charged under an Iraqi law against "intentionally taking or trying to take out of Iraq an antiquity," but Waldmann was acquitted of the same charges. They had collected the artefacts during a recent tour of the country from a site in Eridu.

Fitton has claimed that he had no idea that he was breaking Iraqi law by collecting the objects. His family has urged the UK government to come to his aid.

"For a man of Jim's age, 15 years in an Iraqi prison is tantamount to a death sentence. Particularly for such a trivial and dubious crime, a crime Jim was not even aware of when he perpetrated it," the family said, per BBC.

"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," they added.

Fitton's lawyer, Thair Soud, has also said that he will appeal against the verdict immediately, claiming that the court did not apply the law "correctly."

"My client does not deserve this punishment. The antiques that were found with him were stones and pieces of broken pottery that had no material, or archaeological, value," Soud told The Guardian.

Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office has said that they cannot interfere with the judicial process of another country. The maximum sentence for removing artefacts in Iraq is the death penalty. The court reportedly decided to reduce Fitton's sentence "because of the advanced age of the accused."