The head of the Nineveh Court of Appeal, Judge Raed Hamid Al-Musleh, revealed that ISIS organization had looted Iraq’s antiquities and artifacts when it took control of the province and other cities.
Al-Musleh said in a press statement followed by Shia Waves Agency that: “Many antiquities and artifacts in Nineveh Governorate were looted and smuggled outside of the country by the terrorist organization (ISIS), who deceivingly said that they were destroyed.”
The judge continued, “The criminal organization succeeded in deceiving people that the looted antiquities and artifacts contradict the group’s belief, but the truth is that it looted and smuggled them through Turkey and Syria and had sold them on the black market.”
Al-Musleh explained that “Da’esh used a trick to cover up his crime, as he sought the help of specialized experts in producing fake pieces similar to the antiquities in the Nimrud Library and the Mosul Museum and demolished them before the cameras.”
Al-Musleh revealed that “the Iraqi Judicial Council has so far recovered (3,817 artifacts), and (78 artifacts) have been repatriated from Lebanon and (32) from Britain, and the record of the royal family has been repatriated from Saudi Arabia and other pieces from the Netherlands and Norway during the past years.”
