Ruth Zuccarello says she almost collapsed in shock after learning her brother Jim Fitton was sentenced to 15 years in an Iraqi prison for attempting to “smuggle” shards of stone and pottery from the country.
The distraught 68-year-old, who lives in Kirkcaldy, told The Courier she feels “destroyed” by the sentence passed down to the father-of-two and retired geologist on June 6.
Mr Fitton, who is originally from Bath in Somerset, collected 12 stones and shards of broken pottery as souvenirs during a geology and archaeology tour.
He insists he had no idea he was breaking Iraqi law.
Members of his family are now raising an appeal and have urged the UK Government to help free him.
They argue that for a man of his age, 15 years in an Iraqi prison is “tantamount to a death sentence”.
‘We are just so in shock’
Ms Zuccarello says she was “absolutely floored” by the sentence and is now asking members of the public to write to their MP and the foreign secretary to plead for action.
Speaking about the reaction for the first time from her Kirkcaldy home on Tuesday, the pensioner described the moment she received the news while visiting Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens.
“I knew it was going to be a difficult day,” she said.
“I hoped it was going to turn out well because I’d been led to believe there was every chance he would be acquitted or that he might get a bit of a slap on the wrist.
“A fine or perhaps a short sentence which might be suspended in view of the time he’d already done there.
“When I actually saw the news, that absolutely floored me. I was on my own and almost felt as if I was going to faint.
“We are, all of us, just so in shock”.
‘I feel it has destroyed me’
Ms Zuccarello said things got worse as she began to contemplate the reality of her brother’s fate.
“It’s as things sink in, the horror of the situation, the horror of what might be inflicted on him, what kind of cell he might go into, with how many people and what kind of criminal,” she said.
“Plus it’s the impact on the family – it destroys families.
“I feel already that it has destroyed me. I have no energy for anything else or even to tackle the other problems that I have in life.
“It just destroys peoples lives – and for what?”
Charged under a 2002 law
Mr Fitton was arrested at Baghdad airport on March 20 alongside German national Volker Waldmann.
They were charged under a 2002 law against “intentionally taking or trying to take out of Iraq an antiquity” but Mr Waldmann was later acquitted.
When Judge Jabir Abd Jabir asked Mr Fitton why he tried to take the artefacts, he cited his “hobby” and said he did not mean to do anything illegal.
"For a 66-year-old man, 15 years in an Iraqi jail is tantamount to a death sentence."
Leila Fitton, the daughter of Jim Fitton who has been jailed in Iraq accused of smuggling artefacts, says her father was "shocked" by the sentence.
Full story: https://t.co/oxnbSf7LU9 pic.twitter.com/r4tj35CmO5
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 7, 2022
The maximum sentence for removing artefacts is the death penalty.
The court decided to reduce the sentence “because of the advanced age of the accused”.
The ruling appeared to shock those in court, including Mr Fitton’s lawyer, who later said he expected a one year suspended sentence in the “worst case scenario”.
‘Total lack of compassion’
Ms Zuccarello said the ruling feels “totally unjust and arbitrary”.
“What is the point of this?” she said.
“The total lack of compassion, the total lack of humanity, and that a government here can thrown you into that kind of scenario.
“They have allowed this to happen.
“It’s no longer there to help, support and protect British citizens who find themselves in unforeseeable difficulties abroad.”
Ms Zuccarello says months after Mr Fitton was first detained, the family has still not been contacted by a government minister to discuss their ordeal.
We reported last week how nearly a full month after Fife MP Neale Hanvey made two urgent appeals for help from Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, he has still not had a reply.
The Foreign Office said it cannot interfere with the judicial process of another country and has made clear its opposition to the death penalty.
