Morning:
8°c
Expert who stole pages of rare texts has prison term halved
Paul Cheston29 Apr 2009
An internationally-renowned scholar who was jailed for cutting out and stealing pages from rare and ancient literary texts had his sentence halved today.
Wealthy book collector Farhad Hakimzadeh, 61, of Knightsbridge, took pages from 10 books worth £71,000 at the British Library and carried out four raids on Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
Hakimzadeh pleaded guilty to 14 counts of theft in May last year at Wood Green crown court and was jailed for two years in January, but today
London's Criminal Appeal Court ruled that he should serve 12 months.
Sentencing judge Mr Justice Blake also overturned a deportation order after hearing that Hakimzadeh was a dedicated philanthropist and could have been suffering from an “acquisitive personality disorder”.
Hakimzadeh, an Iranian who has lived in Britain for more than 30 years, is an expert on cultural relations between Europe and Persia in the 15th and 16th centuries and is a former director of the Iran Heritage Foundation, which promotes Iran's culture.
He was caught when a reader in the British Library noticed that one text had a page missing. The library examined all 842 books which Hakimzadeh, among others, looked at between 1997 and 2005. The texts were mainly from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
When police visited Hakimzadeh's home they found matching copies of the British Library texts.
Experts inspected the gilt edging of pages, water stains and even worm holes to reveal that Hakimzadeh had taken pages. Thefts from the Bodleian Library, Oxford University's main research library, were found dating from 2003.
Mr Justice Blake said in his ruling: “Hakimzadeh has suffered a considerable humiliation and loss of reputation. This is a case in which there is exceptional mitigation.”
Reader views (6)
I and millions of others have absolutely no faith in our politicians, criminal justice system and indeed any part of the Establishment at all.
We are close to breaking point.
- Stephen Gash, Carlisle England, 30/04/2009 15:47
Report abuse
"Aquisitive disorder personality" - ie "thief". In Iran this very greedy man would have received a far harsher punishment. Rightfully so as he abused his position of trust to destroy something irreplaceable.
- Sandra, London UK, 30/04/2009 05:30
Report abuse
He obviously didn't steal the enough pages
- Mr S.Port, London, 30/04/2009 02:18
Report abuse
“Hakimzadeh has suffered a considerable humiliation and loss of reputation. This is a case in which there is exceptional mitigation.”
For intentionally damaging irreplaceable books? Try doing that in Iran, and see what you get.This man stole a resource from the entire world, not just one person: if he's mentally ill, it's a different matter, but that's not the plea.
- Mdj E10, london uk, 29/04/2009 18:05
Report abuse
Given the low or nonexistent time criminals are serving for crimes against PEOPLE, this sentence is outrageous.
- Trunk, US, 29/04/2009 17:29
Report abuse
Someone should take a page out of the Judges book....2 years...should have been a fine. People who commit worse crimes get less.
- Rosie, watford, 29/04/2009 15:37
Report abuse
