Swiss return three confiscated artefacts to Iraq

Geneva: Switzerland on Friday returned to Iraq three important Mesopotamian objects seized during a criminal procedure, Bern said. During a ceremon...

Geneva: Switzerland on Friday returned to Iraq three important Mesopotamian objects seized during a criminal procedure, Bern said.

During a ceremony at the culture ministry in Bern, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider handed over a partial statue and two Mesopotamian reliefs to Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

The three works, which are 1,700 to 2,800 years old, are "of great significance" to Iraq, the ministry said in a statement.

They were confiscated during a criminal procedure in the Geneva canton last year, it said.

The main person accused in that case was handed a prison sentence for document forgery and for violating the Cultural Property Transfer Act, which bans the transfer of stolen or looted cultural goods, the ministry said.