Leather cigar case seized
24/06/2008
A cigar case in red leather, once the property of a minister of the former regime in Iraq, has led to a spot of trouble for the new mayor of London.
Boris Johnson, elected mayor in May, is also a journalist. On a press trip to Iraq in 2003, he toured the bombed out house of former minister Tariq Aziz and picked up the cigar case as a souvenir.
Five years later, the police in London said they were obliged to confiscate the case, and to investigate to see if it represented “an object of cultural significance”.
Mr Johnson blamed political opponents for forcing the police to carry out the exercise, which he described as “a monumental waste of time”.
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