BERLIN (AP) — A German court docket convicted 5 males Tuesday of breaking right into a Dresden museum and stealing 21 items of jewellery containing greater than 4,300 diamonds.
The boys ages 24 to 29 acquired jail sentences starting from 4 years and 4 months to 6 years and three months, German information company dpa reported. One defendant was acquitted.
The Dresden state court docket dominated that the 5 have been answerable for the theft of the 18th century jewellery from the Inexperienced Vault Museum on Nov. 25, 2019. Officers mentioned on the time that the stolen objects included a big diamond brooch and a diamond epaulet.
The crime was thought-about one in all Germany’s most spectacular jewellery heists in latest historical past. The items taken had a complete insured worth of a minimum of 113.8 million euros ($129 million).
The boys have been accused of beginning a hearth simply earlier than the break-in to chop the ability provide to road lights outdoors the museum, and in addition setting hearth to a automobile in a close-by storage earlier than fleeing to Berlin. They have been caught a number of months later throughout raids in Germany’s capital.
The court docket convicted them of significantly aggravated arson together with harmful bodily harm, theft with weapons, harm to property and intentional arson.
The judges who heard the case noticed that a number of the males had acted with “appreciable felony power,” dpa reported. The purpose was “to get wealthy,” the judges mentioned.
Greater than 100 witnesses and 11 specialists gave testimony through the trial’s essential proceedings, based on the information company.
The Inexperienced Vault is among the world’s oldest museums. It was established in 1723 and comprises the treasury of Augustus the Robust of Saxony, comprising round 4,000 objects of gold, valuable stones and different supplies.
In January, the protection, prosecution and court docket reached a plea discount after many of the stolen jewels have been returned. Nonetheless, a number of the most vital items that includes giant diamonds stay lacking, based on dpa.
4 defendants who agreed to the plea discount subsequently admitted their involvement within the crime via their attorneys. The fifth defendant additionally confessed, however solely to serving to to acquire objects such because the axes used to make holes within the museum show case, dpa reported.
The returned items don’t erase the truth that the museum’s assortment of full jewellery units “might be destroyed eternally,” Presiding Choose Andreas Ziegel Ziegel mentioned.
The state of Saxony, the place Dresden is situated, claimed damages of just about 89 million euros to cowl the price of items that have been returned broken, the lacking jewellery and repairs to the destroyed show circumstances and the museum constructing.
