Ministers are under pressure to help a retired British geologist facing the death penalty in Iraq over smuggling allegations. A petition urging the release of father-of-two Jim Fitton, 66, has received almost 100,000 signatures in just three days.
Retired British geologist Jim Fitton pictured with his wife Sarijah Fitton before his arrest
They said: ‘There is never a good time for something like this to happen but we are one week away from what should be the happiest day of our lives, and the culmination of more than two years of planning, and it’s been turned into an absolute living nightmare. Mr Fitton has been detained in Iraq for five weeks after being accused of attempting to smuggle historic artefacts out of the country.
But they added the items were judged to be artefacts under Iraqi law and the charge levelled at Mr Fitton states ‘whoever exported or intended to export, deliberately, an antiquity, from Iraq, shall be punishable with execution’.
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