Jim Fitton, 66, was jailed after collecting 12 stones and fragments of broken pottery as souvenirs while visiting a site in Eridu as part of an organized geological and archaeological tour. Iraqi officials claimed that the objects in the southeast of the country could be considered archaeological pieces as they date back more than 200 years. Fitton’s lawyer, Thaer Saoud, told AFP that the conviction had been overturned by Iraq’s annulment court, adding: “My client will soon be free.” His family said they were “over the moon” after being told he has been cleared. His son-in-law Sam Tasker, 27, from Bath in Somerset, said the family “expect him to be home by the end of the week”, although a timetable remains unclear. He said: “We were informed this morning that the Court of Appeal has decided to overturn the felony court verdict, fully recognize Jim’s innocence in this case and process his immediate release from his 15-year prison sentence in Baghdad. “We understand this process is ongoing – he is still in prison this evening but will be released shortly. We won’t be doing any press interviews or commenting on the situation at all until he gets home as we don’t want to rub the wrong teams or put him in danger. “Once he comes home, we will celebrate and take some time to come together as a family and be happy to tell the story to anyone who will listen.” Fitton, a father of two who lives in Malaysia with his wife, Sarijah, has been in jail since March 20, when the items were discovered by airport security at Baghdad airport. He was found guilty in a Baghdad court under a 2002 Saddam Hussein-era law that legal experts should not have applied to the case. His co-accused, German tourist Volker Waldmann, was acquitted. The men said they had no idea collecting items from Iraq was illegal and had not acted with criminal intent. Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dem MP for Bath, hailed the ‘fantastic development’, adding: ‘It is impossible to imagine the stress Jim and his family have been under over the last few months. “Jim and his family have shown incredible strength and should be extremely proud of the part they played in pushing the government to act. This was an incredibly worrying time and the government should look at how to improve the way it responds to these cases in the first place. “This is a testament to the hard work of the consulate team, State Department officials and, of course, Jim’s family.” More than 357,000 people signed an online petition calling for Fitton’s release after concerns he would be sentenced to death. A Foreign Office spokesman said it is providing consular assistance to a British national in Iraq, continues to support his family and is in contact with local authorities.
