By Simona Block and Jörg Schurig, dpa
DRESDEN – A German court has handed years-long prison sentences to five men for their role in stealing royal jewelry from Dresden’s Green Vault, in one of the most spectacular heists in the country’s history.
The judges imposed sentences of between four years and four months and six years and three months. The Dresden Regional Court found them guilty of serious arson as well as grievous bodily harm, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson.
The sentences were part of a plea bargain reached in January between the defence, the prosecution and the court after most of the stolen jewels had been returned in late 2022.
A sixth defendant with an alibi was acquitted.
All of the men are in their 20s and are associated with Berlin’s Remmo organized crime family, which is of Arab heritage. German media refer to such groups as “clans.”
At dawn on November 25, 2019, two thieves broke into the Green Vault in Dresden’s Royal Palace museum via a window and smashed a display case with an axe. Within minutes they had made off with treasures dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries worth a total of €116.8 million ($127 million).
Around 4,300 diamonds and other precious stones were stolen from 21 pieces of opulent jewellery stored at the palace, which is one of the oldest buildings in Dresden and home to one of Europe’s largest collections of treasures.
It was formally the home of Saxony’s Royal Family when the area was an independent kingdom before the start of the German Empire in 1871. The kingdom continued as part of Germany until the end of World War I.
The modern German state of Saxony, of which Dresden is again the capital, is the successor to the kingdom and the palace was rebuilt as a museum after being badly damaged in World War II.
The assailants caused more than $1 million worth of damage when they set fire to an electricity distribution box in Dresden’s Old Town and to a getaway car in the underground car park of a residential building to cover their tracks.
The state of Saxony had claimed damages of almost €89 million in court – for the returned, partly damaged and still missing pieces of jewellery as well as for repairs to the museum building.
Four of the convicted also have to pay for the damage to a lock and the display cases.
The defendants were caught one by one during raids in Berlin months after the theft. Two of the convicted are also still serving sentences for the theft of a gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017.
The defence had demanded that all sentences for the Dresden heist be reduced because they had assisted in the investigation. Their lawyers also argued that the museum’s lack of security “at least encouraged” the men to commit the crime.
