Hi all – best wishes from all of Leila’s family here in Malaysia. We are, as ever, eternally grateful for your support.
I wanted to put out a quick update to provide you all with a template for letters and emails to MPs regarding Jim’s case. Our hope is to reach a critical mass of MPs discussing the issue before parliament returns tomorrow, to force the Foreign Office to engage with us and help us to save Jim from this sentence. I’ve received a few emails from friends and signatories who don’t know what to say, so feel free to use this as a template or a foundation to build out from when you write to your MP to support us:
Dear <Insert MP’s name here>
I am writing to you today as a concerned constituent in the urgent hope that you will support with a time-sensitive issue.
You will no doubt have seen by now the case of Jim Fitton, a retired geologist and British Citizen arrested in Iraq under dubious charges of smuggling historical artifacts, and facing a death penalty sentence. If you are not aware of the situation you can read the full story here: https://www.change.org/p/our-father-is-facing-the-death-penalty-in-iraq-freejimfitton/u/30498943
The Fittons’ MP, Wera Hobhouse, is running a parliamentary campaign to urge the foreign office to engage with the family and support them with a simple, straightforward request which could free Jim and get him home safe before a sentence is even passed. However, so far these calls have fallen on deaf ears and decision makers at the foreign office have remained completely silent on the issue.
Jim’s sentencing hearing could be as early as next week, after which it could be too late to step in. Please use your position to lobby the government, and work with Wera to ensure that Foreign Office ministers and the Foreign Secretary engage with the family as soon as possible. We have the opportunity to save the life of a British Citizen in dire need of help.
Yours Sincerely,
<Sign your name>
If you don’t know your MP you can find out by entering your postcode on the government portal here:
Should you wish to support the campaign using social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook, we would be hugely grateful for this. The most effective way to do this is to tweet the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss @trussliz, and also include your local MP. We have created a click-to-tweet link with the help of our friends at Change.org which will populate the tweet for you, so all you have to do is edit if you like and click “tweet”:
We have spoken to Jim today and he is in decent spirits. He wished us Selamat Hari Raya (The Malaysian version of Eid Mubarak or Happy Eid). He briefly discussed the petition – he is overwhelmed by the support we have received. People who don’t know any of us are running prayer groups in Jim’s name across multiple faiths. Groups of geologists from all over the world are banding together with #geologiststogether. If this can happen to someone as well-travelled and well-meaning as Jim, then it can truly happen to anyone.
We still, even with the petition at over 100,000 in less than a week, have yet to receive any contact from anyone with decision-making power at the Foreign Office. With your support we believe we can get this story on the political agenda from tomorrow when MPs return to the house, and force the FCDO to engage with us and act before it’s too late.
Thank you so much, as ever, for your support.
Leila, Josh, Sarijah and Sam