BAGHDAD: A British national accused by Iraq of collecting small archaeological fragments will be tried next week on charges potentially punishable by death, his Baghdad lawyer said Wednesday.
Retired geologist Jim Fitton, 66, was arrested in March at the Baghdad airport after Iraqi customs officials found him in possession of pottery fragments taken from an ancient site in southern Iraq. A German citizen accompanying him was also charged, but details of his case have not been made public.
Fitton will stand trial before Iraq’s Felony Court this Sunday, his lawyer, Thair Soud, told The Associated Press.
The charges against him are based on Iraq’s opaque antiquities laws and are punishable by death. However, Fitton’s legal team and a British official following the case have said they believe this outcome will be unlikely.
During the trial, Soud will have to prove to a panel of judges that Fitton did not harbor any criminal intent when he picked up shards of pottery found strewn across the desert landscape during a tourism expedition to Eridu, an ancient Mesopotamian site in what is now Dhi Qar province. In total, 12 fragments of pottery and other shards were found in Fitton’s possession by Iraqi authorities.
Soud had drafted a proposal under Iraqi law to have the case closed before a trial takes place on the grounds that it could harm Iraq’s national interests. Tourism is a nascent industry in the country, but the government introduced visas on arrival last year to encourage international visitors to come and tour its many archaeological sites.
Fitton’s family has petitioned the British Foreign Office to assist Soud in submitting his proposal to Iraq’s public prosecutor, garnering over 100,000 signatures. Fitton missed his daughter Leila Fitton’s wedding in Malaysia, which took place last Sunday. She said she was “heartbroken” by his absence.
Concerns grew shortly after Fitton’s arrest when Shiite militia groups published posts on social media that included his passport details and accused the British government of attempting to intervene with Iraqi judicial procedures.
British man found with ancient shards in Iraq to stand trial
https://arab.news/rayha
British man found with ancient shards in Iraq to stand trial
- Retired geologist Jim Fitton, 66, was arrested in March at the Baghdad airport
- The charges against him are based on Iraq's opaque antiquities laws and are punishable by death
Over 2,200 Daesh detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria: Iraqi official
- Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists
BAGHDAD: Iraq has so far received 2,225 Daesh group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.
They are among up to 7,000 Daesh detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”
Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF’s role in confronting Daesh had come to an end.
Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister’s office, told AFP on Saturday that “Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition,” which Washington has led since 2014 to fight Daesh.
He said they are being held in “strict, regular detention centers.”
A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the “continued transfer of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition,” using another name for Daesh.
On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.
- Iraq calls for repatriation -
Daesh seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.
Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offenses.
Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.
On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military’s operation.
In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said “the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist Daesh organization before the competent Iraqi courts.”
Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.
Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.
Maan noted that “the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed.”
