LONDON, September 25 (IranMania) - The Judicial Office director of Iran?s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) said that the London Barakat Gallery may win the city?s appeal court against Iran in the case of the Jiroft artifacts, MNA reported.

?Iran?s team of lawyers is the same team that once convinced the London appeals court to rule in favor of Iran,? Omid Ghanami told the Persian service of CHN on Wednesday.

He said that he has not been informed when the court session would be held.

No more details were given in the report. 

The Barakat Gallery has appealed against a London appeals court decision, by whose ruling in December 2007, the gallery must return 18 artifacts smuggled from the ancient site of Jiroft in southern Iran.

In March 2007, London?s High Court had rejected Iran?s ownership of the 5,000-year-old artifacts that had been put up for auction at the Barakat Gallery, which has offices in Mayfair, central London and Beverly Hills.

The CHTHO appealed the court decision in May 2007.

The collection of historic items consists of two jars, five cups, six vases, a bowl, a vessel and three weights. 

In March 2005, Britain returned 118 ancient artifacts that had been looted from Jiroft. The items had been confiscated by customs officials at London?s Heathrow Airport in the summer of 2004.

Jiroft came into the spotlight in 2002, when reports surfaced that local people had begun extensive illegal excavations and were plundering priceless relics.

Five excavation seasons have been carried out at the Jiroft site, under the supervision of Professor Yusef Majidzadeh, leading to the discovery of a ziggurat made of more than four mln mud bricks dating back to circa 2200 BC. 

After numerous rare discoveries in the region, Majidzadeh declared Jiroft to be a cradle of art, and gave it the title of ?the archaeologists? lost paradise?.