This incident happened at the Turkish airport Antalya in the south of the country. An American who had with himself a piece of marble and a part of natural stone was caught on suspicion of smuggling historic things.  

According to the local authorities, Jason Cement may be sentenced to 12 years in prison. The caught tourist says that he is innocent, and that he found those historic artefacts on the beach. Moreover, he thought that the stones had been worthless and for him they would be just souvenirs from his holiday in Turkey.  

Unfortunately, local customs officer did not believe this explanation. According to them, a triangle-shaped piece of marble and a brick-coloured stone found in the bag full of stones may come from a historic building. 
 

Last Monday “the stone collector” was released from the jail, but the court did not trust his words and forbade him to leave Turkey. An official report which is going to be carried out by a historian from the museum in Antalya will be significant for this case of smuggling historic stones. After doing the research, the scientist is supposed to say whether those stones are valuable or not.  

What attracted our attention in this case is how severe punishments for this kind of action in Turkey can be. Polish bill concerning the protection of historic buildings and caring for them says about the imprisonment from 3 months to 5 years.  

Photo: www.wikipedia.pl