British geologist jailed for 15 years in Iraq for smuggling artefacts

A British citizen has been sentenced by an Iraqi court to 15 years in prison for attempting to smuggle artifacts out of the country.

Jim Fitton's defence lawyer was surprised by the verdict handed down in Baghdad. Fitton had no criminal intent according to his family.

Thair Soud thought the worst-case scenario would be a year with suspension.

The German national was found not guilty of criminal intent and will be released.

Fitton had criminal intent to smuggle the items out of the country because they were discovered to be artifacts older than 200 years old.

The judge didn't consider Soud's arguments about Fitton's knowledge of Iraqi law and the value of the items. The items in Fitton and Waldman's luggage were discovered by airport security and they were arrested. They had traveled to the country's ancient sites.

Fitton was supposed to return to Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight but he did not show up. Fitton was taken to an airport holding cell where he was still being held.

A petition with more than 100,000 signatures was started by Fitton's family after they were dissatisfied with the British Foreign Office's lack of help. There is no comment from the British diplomatic mission in Baghdad.

According to Fitton's family, 12 fragments of pottery and other shards were found in Fitton's possession by Iraqi authorities, all of them collected as souvenirs during a group tourism expedition to Eridu.

The German tourist did not pick up the pieces from the site. The men could have faced the death penalty for violating the antiquities laws. It was only a remote possibility.

He was going to appeal against the sentence immediately. It's not clear if Fitton can serve out his sentence in his home country, which requires a bilateral agreement between Iraq and the UK.