Thieves from the Green Vault try to avoid prison by legal means

Two people convicted of stealing jewels from the Green Vault in Dresden remain at liberty for the time being after they failed to report for prison by the deadline on Tuesday.

The break-in at Saxony's famous Treasury Museum on November 25, 2019 was one of the most spectacular art thefts in Germany.

The perpetrators stole 21 pieces of jewelry made of diamonds and precious stones and caused damage of over one million euros, among other things because they set fire to one of their getaway cars in the underground car park of a residential building.

At the end of the trial, the Dresden Regional Court suspended some arrest warrants under certain conditions as part of an agreement that also included the return of a large part of the loot.

A spokesman for the Dresden public prosecutor's office said on Tuesday that two of the men, a 28-year-old and a 30-year-old, both members of the Berlin criminal clan Remmo, had filed applications for a stay of execution, which had been rejected.

The younger man's lawyer requested a judge's decision, which is still pending. It is unclear whether the other man will appeal the denial. If not, he faces prison time.

The two men, as well as another young man from the Remmo clan who was also convicted, were released from custody after their verdicts were announced in May 2023.

In accordance with the guidelines of the Berlin penal system plan, the 28-year-old and the 30-year-old were summoned to the detention center by July 19 to arrange for their open detention there.

They were sentenced to prison terms of five years and ten months and six years and two months respectively and had already spent 911 days in pre-trial detention, which will be credited to them.

In May 2023, the Dresden Regional Court sentenced a total of five young men from the well-known Arab family from Berlin to several years in prison. The verdict is now final.

At the end of the trial, the arrest warrants for four of them were suspended on certain conditions. One of the terms of an agreement was the return of most of the loot. However, since one of them was still serving another sentence, only three of them were actually released provisionally.

The fifth defendant had to remain in prison because he did not agree to the deal. The sixth defendant, a cousin of the co-defendants, was acquitted.