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Iraq Foils Bid To Smuggle Out 500-Year-Old Qur'an
BAGHDAD, Sept 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq's customs authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle out a cache of antique pieces, including a five-century-old copy of the Qur'an, news agencies reported Saturday.
Hameed Shokr Mahmoud, director-general of the customs department, said officials had "recently thwarted an attempt to smuggle out 410 antique pieces, in addition to a 500-year-old copy of the Qur'an," the Muslim holy book, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said, based on a report in the Iraqi weekly
Al Ittihad.
Antiques traffickers face a possible death penalty in Iraq.
Ten people were executed in early 1998 for chopping off the head of a winged bull uncovered a decade earlier and dating back to the Assyrian era (2500 BC).
Baghdad is also seeking the return of looted Iraqi archeological pieces from European museums, the head of Iraq's department of archeology and heritage, Jaber Khalil Ibrahim, announced in a report late August.
"Iraq has made some diplomatic approaches in France, Britain and Germany in an attempt to retrieve stolen pieces of art," Ibrahim told
Al-Ilam weekly, AFP reported.
Ibrahim maintained that museums in Britain, Berlin and the Louvre in Paris are exhibiting stolen Iraqi archeological treasures.
He said that Baghdad had previously managed to have some stolen pieces of art returned from displays overseas, but was not specific.
Iraq has more than 10,000 archeological sites, most of which have still not been uncovered, according to official statistics.
U.S. soldiers are accused of having pillaged treasures from Ur, the most splendid of all the ancient Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia, following Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.
Many foreigners have also financed the theft of archeological pieces, Baghdad maintained, pointing an accusing finger at diplomats posted in Baghdad, as well as U.N. employees.
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