crime
Last act in the jewel theft trial in Dresden: verdicts
Two employees from the forensics are standing in front of the residential palace with the Green Vault (archive picture). photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
The process of stealing jewels from the Green Vault has been going on at the Dresden Regional Court for over a year. Four young men have confessed to the burglary.
After almost 50 days of negotiations, the process of stealing jewels from the historic Green Vault in Dresden is coming to an end. The verdicts are to be pronounced today in the high-security hall of Saxony’s judiciary on the outskirts of the city. According to a court spokesman, it is possible that several of the accused “actually leave as free persons” in the high-security hall of the Saxon judiciary.
The agreement concluded between the public prosecutor, the court and the defense, which four of the accused agreed to, stipulates that the arrest warrants will be suspended when the verdict is announced until the verdict becomes final or they are summoned to begin imprisonment if the remaining sentence is still outstanding. A 26-year-old would be exempt from this because he is currently serving his youth sentence for stealing the gold coin from the Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017.
Over a million euros in damage
The art theft from Saxony’s Treasury Museum on November 25, 2019 is considered one of the most spectacular in Germany. The perpetrators stole 21 pieces of jewelry made of diamonds and brilliants worth millions and caused more than one million euros in damage by setting fire to an electricity box and a getaway car to cover up tracks – in the underground car park of a Dresden apartment building.
Since the end of January 2022, men between the ages of 24 and 29 have had to answer for this. They come from the Berlin Remmo clan, a well-known extended family of Arabic origin. There they were caught in raids. Four of them admitted in court that they were involved in the coup and showed remorse. One admitted his involvement in the preparation. One of the accused denies being a perpetrator and has an alibi: emergency treatment in a Berlin clinic on the night of the crime.
The willingness to do so resulted from the “deal” after they returned what was left of the loot shortly before Christmas 2022 – 18 pieces of jewelry, some of which were damaged. In addition to credible confessions, the agreement also included questioning in court. According to the public prosecutor’s office, you “by no means” got what you wanted with the “deal”. The information is “at least incomplete”, only “the tip of the iceberg” and many questions are still unanswered.
“Deal” meets with criticism
The “deal” is controversial. There remains a stale aftertaste, “when you consider how much damage the perpetrators caused and that they at least endangered human lives with their arson in the underground car park,” said the left-wing parliamentary group leader in the Saxon state parliament, Rico Gebhardt. AfD MP Thomas Kirsten fumed: “Criminal clans go on a raid in Saxony, then dutifully return part of the loot and are pampered with concessions in return.”
The method of questioning met with criticism from lawyers, a former judge called it a farce. “How credible are statements in which every word has been discussed in detail with the defense attorneys beforehand?”
The public prosecutor sees five of the six accused as perpetrators who, together with a previously unknown person, stole “21 pieces of jewelry with a total value of 116.8 million euros” from the museum. She called for their conviction, among other things, for particularly serious arson. The 25-year-old with the alibi should be acquitted – for lack of evidence.
Defense demands reduced sentence
The defense asked for a reduced sentence for the accused who confessed because they helped to clarify the matter. From their point of view, it must also be noted that the museum’s lack of security “at least favored” the execution of the crime.
With the “deal”, the court is given a sentence of between five years and nine months and six years and nine months for the adults – as well as between four years and four years and nine months for the twin brothers who are still 20 at the time of the crime, if juvenile criminal law applies application comes.
What makes the last act of the process exciting is the question of whether the judges see one of them as an accomplice or just a helper in advance, as defense attorneys and relatives unanimously affirmed conspicuously often.