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Britons appeal against jail sentence
Newspaper reports this week (early March 2000) tell of three
Britons who were locked up for 72 hours in Kos, in July 1997, for using a metal
detector near an old fortress. The three were found to have broken a law
to combat the theft of antiquities from the country but were allowed to buy
their freedom for £5,000 each.
One of the group stated, "Even now, more than two years
later, I can't believe it happened to us. We were just messing about with the
metal detector on a path as we walked up to an old fortress, when we were
arrested." They had found just a couple of bottle tops and a spent bullet
case when they were stopped by a policeman. The group are appealing against the
sentence.
We get many e-mails from detectorists from all parts of the
world asking about the laws in particular countries. It should be noted that
many countries, especially those about the Meditteranean, have laws forbidding
the taking of ancient objects. These have been formulated to prevent the looting
of that countries' heritage. We advise all detectorists to ensure that they
follow the laws of the country they are visiting, even they only intend to
carry out a little recreational detecting, as the group above appear to have
been doing. Follow the link above for 'European Laws' for further details.
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