A Briton and a German allegedly discovered with historical pottery shards in their baggage advised the beginning of their trial Sunday in Iraq that they’d no intention of breaking the regulation.
James Fitton, 66, a retired British geologist, and Volker Waldmann, 60, a Berlin psychologist, appeared dressed in the yellow uniform of detainees for the two-hour listening to at a Baghdad legal court docket.
The two males, who didn’t know one another earlier than they travelled to Iraq on an organised tour, had been arrested March 20 at Baghdad airport.
Their trial comes with the war-ravaged nation, whose tourism infrastructure is sort of non-existent, timidly opening to guests.
Iraq has additionally been attempting to recuperate antiquities that had been looted over a interval of many years from the nation whose civilisation dates again 1000’s of years.
The decide advised the accused they had been charged underneath a 2002 regulation which offers for sentences as much as the loss of life penalty for these responsible of “intentionally taking or trying to take out of Iraq an antiquity”.
According to statements from customs officers and witnesses, Fitton’s baggage contained a few dozen stone fragments, items of pottery or ceramics.
Waldmann allegedly had two items, however denied they had been his.
“I never possessed any of these items,” Waldmann advised the court docket in English. He stated the gadgets discovered in his baggage belonged to Fitton.
“We were visiting the ancient sites and he found them and gave them to me.”
In different remarks translated from German, he stated he put the items in a “transparent bag” and by no means tried to hide them.
When the decide requested Fitton why he tried to take the artefacts out of Iraq, he cited his “hobby” and stated he didn’t imply to do something unlawful.
“I didn’t realise that taking them was against the law,” he stated, including that a few of the historical websites had been open and unguarded.
“I am a retired geologist. My interests still lie in geology and ancient history and archeology,” stated Fitton, who lives in Malaysia.
He added that “most of the pieces were really small”.
Fitton’s household has stated the fragments got here from the Eridu archaeological website in southern Iraq.
The trial is to proceed on May 22.
Briton, German on trial in Iraq over pottery shards & More Latest News Update
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