RIYADH: The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) handed over a number of Iraqi cultural artifacts smuggled to the Kingdom by an Arab expatriate recently.

The returned artifacts include statues of human beings and lions of varying sizes made of marble and other materials.

Hussein Abu Al-Hassan, assistant vice president of the SCTA, signed on Wednesday a statement returning five artifacts to the second secretary at the Iraqi Embassy in the Kingdom, Ahmad Al-Jarba, and attaché Abdullah Rashad.

This is the second time in two months the SCTA has returned stolen cultural properties to Iraq.