crime
Prison sentences for Dresden jewel thieves
The accused and their lawyers in the trial for the theft of jewels from the Green Vault in the Dresden Regional Court. photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa-Pool/dpa
It was a brazen coup with loot worth millions. Young men from the Berlin Remmo clan confessed to breaking into the historic Green Vault in Dresden – and returned pieces of jewelry.
Three and a half years after the spectacular theft of jewels from the historic Green Vault in Dresden, five young men from the Berlin Remmo clan have been sentenced to prison terms. The Dresden regional court found her guilty on Tuesday of particularly serious arson in combination with dangerous bodily harm, theft with weapons, property damage and intentional arson. The penalty is based on a “deal”. A 25-year-old was acquitted, he has an alibi.
The Criminal Court imposed prison sentences of six years and three months, five years and ten months, and six years and two months on three men from the well-known extended Arab family, who are now 26, 27 and 29 years old. One of the twin brothers got four years and four months juvenile detention. The four accused must pay for the damage to the lock and the showcase. The judges also see the other 24-year-old as an accomplice, he received six years of youth imprisonment – including a previous conviction. The pronouncement of the verdict, like some days of the trial, was accompanied by a great deal of media interest.
Diamonds and brilliants with a total value of 116.8 million euros
The art theft from Saxony’s famous 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 with a total value of 116.8 million euros and caused more than one million euros in damage when they set fire to a power distribution box in the old town and a getaway car in the underground car park of a residential building to cover their tracks. The Free State had asserted damages of almost 89 million euros in court – for the returned, partially damaged and missing pieces of jewelery as well as for repairs, for example of the destroyed showcases and the museum building.
Months later, the accused were gradually caught in raids in Berlin. Five are in custody, one of them and a 25-year-old are also still serving their youth sentence for stealing the gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017. At the beginning of January there was an agreement between the defense, the public prosecutor’s office and the court, after shortly before Christmas 2022 the most of the stolen jewels had been returned.
Four suspects had agreed to the controversial “deal”, who then declared themselves to be part of the crime through their lawyers. Another defendant also confessed, but only to procuring objects such as the axes that were used to punch holes in the museum display case. For them, the defense had demanded a reduced sentence for providing information and pointed out that the museum’s lack of security “at least favored” the execution of the crime.