Iraq arrests 37 antiquities trafficking suspects

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi interior ministry on Friday announced the arrest of 37 suspects and the seizure of over 200 historical items in October as part of ongoing efforts to combat illicit antiquities trafficking.

“Anti-organized crime detachments managed, during the month of October, to arrest 37 suspects for trafficking in antiquities and seize 222 artifacts and 23 coins,” interior ministry spokesperson Major General Miqdad Miri said in a statement, adding that forces also confiscated five devices “used for detecting antiquities and recording two cases of encroachment on an archaeological mound.”

Artifacts in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have been subjected to widespread looting and vandalism since the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which worsened in 2014 after the Islamic State (ISIS) seized control of large swathes of the country’s north and west.

In recent years, Baghdad has made significant efforts to recover and repatriate these lost antiquities.
 
In January, Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage announced that the country successfully recovered approximately 11,000 looted artifacts over the previous two years, noting that roughly 6,000 of these antiquities were returned from Britain, and that negotiations remain ongoing to reclaim more smuggled relics from abroad.

Iraqi law treats the theft of historical artifacts as a severe criminal offense under the Antiquities and Heritage Law No. 55 of 2002.

Offenders convicted of antiquities theft face prison sentences ranging from seven to 15 years and are subject to fines up to six times the estimated value of the stolen items.

The legislation enforces a life sentence for any individual found managing or protecting stolen antiquities. Furthermore, if a theft is executed using coercion or involves armed individuals, the penalty can escalate to a death sentence.

Notably, in December 2021, the US returned a prized 3,500-year-old clay tablet featuring part of the Epic of Gilgamesh to Iraq. The tablet had been stolen from an Iraqi museum and trafficked illegally to the US.