A Baghdad criminal court adjourned to June 6, Sunday, the trial of two Europeans, a Briton and a German, suspected of trying to smuggle antiquities out of the country.
The deadline must allow time for the competent judicial authorities to study a request for additional investigation filed by the Iraqi lawyer of Volker Waldmann, the German accused, noted an AFP correspondent.
To discover
Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
Read alsoPrehistoric women are on the rise
"Certain important aspects were not examined
during the initial investigation," Furat Kuba told AFP.
“We consider that they are in the interest of our client”
.
The Iraqi lawyer cites the report of an expert committee qualifying the fragments found with the two men as antiquities.
“We did not have more details: from which site do these parts come?
What era, what civilization do they date back to?
, he wondered.
Regarding the site where the fragments were collected,
“is it fenced and protected?
Are there signs indicating that these are antique pieces that are prohibited from being picked up?”
For a few too many shards
The lawyer wants the guide or any Iraqi official then present at the site to be heard in court to find out whether the tourists had received instructions prohibiting them from picking up any fragments.
At the next hearing, the court should
"either dismiss our motion
" or request that the investigation be completed, Kuba said.
Read alsoIraq, tragic fertile crescent of antiquities trafficking
James Fitton, a 66-year-old retired British geologist, and Volker Waldmann, a 60-year-old psychologist from Berlin, were arrested on March 20 at Baghdad airport with pieces of stone, fragments of broken pottery and ceramics.
The two men were in Iraq for an organized trip and did not know each other before this excursion.
James Fitton's luggage contained ten fragments of stones, shards of broken pottery or old ceramics.
Volker Waldmann, meanwhile, was in possession of two pieces which he said were given to him by his traveling companion.
At the start of their trial, the two men invoked their good faith, saying they did not know that the pieces in their possession could be considered antiques.
They are appearing under a 2002 law regulating heritage and antiquities, which provides for up to the death penalty for anyone found guilty
of “intentionally removing or attempting to remove an antiquity from Iraq”.
After decades of conflict and looting, Iraq is timidly opening up to world tourism and is once again welcoming Western travellers, despite almost non-existent tourist infrastructure.