Page 2 - Sam Tasker News Today

A retired British geologist jailed in Iraq for antiquities smuggling has been freed and has left the country, his family said Sunday. Jim Fitton, 66, was sentenced in June to 15 years in an Iraqi prison. A Baghdad appeals court overturned the conviction and last week ordered his release. Fitton has now been reunited with…

The family of a retired British geologist who was detained in Iraq have thanked

Jim Fitton, 66, was arrested on March 20 and jailed for 15 years for collecting stones and shards of pottery as souvenirs.

LONDON (AP) — A retired British geologist jailed in Iraq for antiquities smuggling has been freed and has left the country, his family said Sunday.

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LONDON (AP) -- A retired British geologist jailed in Iraq for antiquities smuggling has been freed and has left the country, his family said Sunday. Jim

BAGHDAD (AP) — A retired British geologist sentenced to 15 years for antiquities smuggling in Iraq may soon go free after a Baghdad court overturned his conviction, his family and lawyer said on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court has overturned the conviction and 15-year sentence handed to a British pensioner last month for antiquities smuggling, the retiree's lawyer said on Tuesday.James Fitton had been charged under a 2002 law against "intentionally taking or trying to take out of Iraq an antiquity", the maximum penalty for which under the country's legal code is death by

James Fitton, a retired geologist who took the objects as souvenirs of a guided tour, is expected to be released soon.

A British retiree who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for pocketing stones and shards at an archaeological site was acquitted on appeal.