A British man faces 15 years in prison after airport security staff in Iraq uncovered a number of fragments of ancient pottery in his bag.
A British citizen has been sentenced by an Iraqi court to 15 years in prison after being convicted of attempting to smuggle artefacts out of the country.Whether Fitton may serve the jail sentence in the UK depends on bilateral conversations between the two countriesMr Fitton's lawyer says he will appeal the decision immediately
Fitton's lawyer said he was shocked by the verdict, and that Fitton did not know that the pottery fragments were considered artefacts."I thought the worst case scenario would be one year, with suspension," Fitton's lawyer Thair Soud, visibly shocked, told The Associated Press. Judge Jabir Abd Jabir found that, according to the government's investigation, Fitton had criminal intent to smuggle the artefacts that he had picked up and intended to transport them out of the country.
Fitton said he "suspected" the items he collected were ancient fragments, but that "at the time I didn't know about Iraqi laws," or that taking the shards was not permitted. The judge, however, did not consider Mr Soud's arguments that laid out Fitton's ignorance of Iraqi laws and the value of the items he picked up.
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