2024-08-21 06:33:42
Two people convicted of stealing jewels from the Grünes Gewiolbe museum in the eastern German city of Dresden are free for now after failing to appear in prison at their deadline on Tuesday, DPA and BTA reported.
The robbery at the famous museum in Saxony took place on November 25, 2019 and is one of the most spectacular art thefts in Germany. Thieves stole 21 jewels stored in the Dresden Royal Palace – home to one of the largest collections of treasures in Europe. Damages totaled more than €1m, partly because the thieves set fire to one of their getaway cars in an underground car park of a residential building.
The Dresden District Court lifted some of the arrest warrants but imposed certain conditions as part of a settlement. It involves the return of most of the stolen jewels.
A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Dresden said two of the men involved in the robbery were members of Berlin’s Remo crime clan. They filed requests to postpone the settlement, which were denied.
The man’s lawyer has requested a court order, which has not yet been made. It’s also unclear whether the other man will challenge the denial. If he fails to do so, he must report to serve a prison sentence. The two were ordered to report to prison by July 19 in accordance with the guidelines of the Berlin Penal Plan. They were sentenced to 5 years and 10 months and 6 years and 2 months of imprisonment, respectively, having already served 911 days in pre-trial detention, which were credited.
In May 2023, the Dresden District Court sentenced a total of five young men from a prominent Arab family living in Berlin to several years in prison. For four of them, arrest warrants were suspended with certain conditions at the end of the trial as part of a settlement that included the return of most of the loot. However, as one of them was still serving another sentence, only three of them were actually paroled.
The fifth convict must remain in prison because he does not agree to the deal. The sixth defendant, a cousin of the others, was acquitted.