Dresden Green Vault jewel heist: Trial to begin next month
December 29, 2021
Six men will go on trial in eastern Germany next month over their alleged role in the spectacular theft of 18th-century jewels from a museum, with the court setting an opening trial date of January 28 on Wednesday.
Prosecutors allege that the men are responsible for the break-in at Dresden's Green Vault Museum on November 25, 2019. The suspects have been accused of stealing 21 pieces of jewelry encrusted with more than 4,300 diamonds. The jewelry had a total insured value of at least €113.8 million ($129 million) and the incident was labeled as the biggest heist in modern German history.
Investigators are still searching for the missing artifacts, despite the heist taking place over two years ago. The Dresden White Diamond and the Polish Order of the White Eagle were among the stolen items.
Suspects all in their 20s
Security camera footage released by Dresden police after the 2019 heist shows two suspects entering the room, waving their flashlights as they step across the black-and-white-tiled floor. They then shatter a glass display case with an ax before taking three sets of jewelry. The theft was a swift operation. By the time police arrived on the scene, five minutes after the alarm had been triggered by security personnel, the thieves had fled.
The suspects, who are all German nationals aged between 22 and 28, have also been accused of creating a fire ahead of the theft in order to cut the power supply for street lights outside the museum. In addition, the six men also burnt out a nearby car, before fleeing roughly 200 kilometers (around 125 miles) north to Berlin.
The Dresden state court said that the process would get underway on January 28, with the currently scheduled trial dates set to continue through to the end of March.
jsi/msh (AP, dpa)