The government "fell asleep at the wheel" before a Brit dad-of-two was sentenced to 15 years in an Iraqi prison for picking up "worthless" ancient stones, an MP claims.
Dad-of-two Jim Fitton, 66, was sentenced to 15 years on Monday after being found guilty of smuggling so-called "ancient artefacts" out of the country by a Baghdad court in Iraq.
The retired geologist was in the Middle East on an archaeology tour when he was arrested alongside German national Volker Waldmann.
Both men were charged, but while Mr Fitton was hit with a 15-year term - which his distraught family say is "tantamount to a death sentence" - the German man was acquitted.
Wera Hobhouse MP for Bath - whose constituents are Jim's daughter Leila and son-in-law Sam - told The Mirror the Foreign Office (FCDO) may have failed to secure a favourable outcome for the pensioner after falling "asleep at the wheel".
"All we know from the family is that they're going to appeal", she explained.
"My impression is that the Foreign Office has done very little, was asleep at the wheel, I don't know."
Ms Hobhouse said she and Sam managed to secure urgent meetings with Amanda Milling, the Tory Minister of State for Asia and the Middle East, but that responses from her office were "very reluctant" and "draggy".
"And the response, as always, is that we deal with these things not in the chamber and not publicly but we do it behind closed doors", she tells The Mirror.
The Liberal Democrat MP claims they eventually had a "relatively good meeting" but "by that time about five or six weeks had passed and Jim was facing a second hearing".
Ms Hobhouse learned from Sam these so-called "artefacts" were very small and non-descript.
She said: "They're tiny shards. And Sam showed us a whole hillside full of bits and pieces.
"And these are tiny things, little crumb type things.
"You can't even put them together and make something else you know.
"Jim sort of collects them as a bit of a souvenir from where he's been.
"They're completely worthless, have no value, and that was the impression under which he put these in his luggage."
In a shared statement after Monday's verdict, his "heartbroken" family echoed Wera's concerns - saying they're "stunned" at the government's "total lack of action in this case to date".
Their statement reads: "We are absolutely shattered by this news.
"For a man of Jim’s age, 15 years in an Iraqi prison is tantamount to a death sentence.
"Particularly for such a trivial and dubious crime, a crime that Jim was not even aware of when he perpetrated it.
"We are completely heartbroken that our own best efforts, a strong legal defence and constant campaigning, have led to this outcome.
"We are disappointed, indeed stunned, at our own government’s total lack of action in this case to date.
"We are raising an appeal and will continue to fight for Jim’s freedom, and urge the government to support us in every way possible and to open lines of communication with us at a senior level."
A Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office spokesman said: “We are providing consular assistance to a British national in Iraq, and continue to support his family. We are in contact with the local authorities.”
