James Fitton, 66, a retired British geologist (left) and Volker Waldmann, 60, a Berlin psychologist, are dressed in the yellow uniform of detainees as they arrive at a courthouse in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on May 22, 2022, where they are tried over ancient pottery shards, considered by the Iraqi authorities as antiquities, found in their luggage at the airport. (SABAH ARAR / AFP)
BAGHDAD – An Iraqi court sentenced a British man to 15 years in prison on Monday for trying to smuggle ancient artifacts out of the country, a Reuters reporter and judicial sources said.
The Baghdad Criminal Court sentenced Fitton for taking the artifacts from a heritage site in southern Iraq and attempting to transport them out of the country "with criminal intent"
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Iraqi authorities had arrested James Fitton, 66, at Baghdad International Airport in March for carrying small fragments of ancient pottery in his baggage.
The Baghdad Criminal Court sentenced Fitton for taking the artifacts from a heritage site in southern Iraq and attempting to transport them out of the country "with criminal intent", according to one judicial source – an offence normally punishable by death under Iraqi law.
Fitton's lawyer said he would appeal the verdict on the grounds that there was no criminal intent.
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A German man arrested alongside Fitton for also taking pottery fragments, Wolker Waldmann, was acquitted of the same charges.