Jewel theft: Arrest warrant against suspects lifted

Created: 06/03/2022Updated: 06/03/2022 17:07

A statue of Lady Justice stands holding scales and sword.

© Arne Dedert/dpa/symbol image

There are always surprises in the legal processing of the jewel robbery from the Green Vault.

A seventh suspect, against whom separate proceedings are pending, has been free since Friday.

Dresden - The Dresden Regional Court has lifted the arrest warrant against the seventh suspect in the case of jewel theft from the Green Vault in Dresden.

This was announced by the public prosecutor's office in Dresden on Friday on request.

The court followed a complaint by the accused.

The court denied both the urgent suspicion and the reasons for detention, said senior public prosecutor Jürgen Schmidt of the German Press Agency.

There was also no risk of escape or blackout.

No further details were given.

The district court could not be reached for questions.

The public prosecutor's office in Dresden is now examining whether to appeal the decision, it said.

The young man was arrested on May 10 on the fringes of the jewel robbery trial.

Until then, he had followed the proceedings as a spectator.

A day later, an arrest warrant was issued.

The investigators had caught up with him, among other things, because of the testimony of a defendant.

A suspect admitted to having participated in the preparation of the November 25, 2019 burglary in the museum in the Residenzschloss.

He did not name the accused in the trial at the time, but did name the man arrested in May.

The trial against the 22-year-old is independent of the trial against the alleged jewel thieves.

At the trial, six young men between the ages of 23 and 28 are charged with aggravated gang theft, arson and particularly aggravated arson.

The later arrested is accused of aiding and abetting these crimes.

The accused are Germans and come from a well-known Berlin extended family of Arabic origin.

In the early morning of November 25, 2019, they are said to have stolen 21 pieces of jewelry from the treasury with a total of 4,300 diamonds and brilliants with a total value of over 113 million euros and left property damage of over one million euros.

They are also accused of having set fire to a power box in the old town and a getaway car in the underground car park of a residential building.

On Friday, a fire expert from the Saxony State Criminal Police Office testified in the process.

He ruled out a technical defect as the cause of the fire in the Augustusbrücke level house or in the underground car park in the Pieschen district.

Commuters reported to the court that on the morning of the day of the crime they had noticed a taxi driving at an unbelievably high speed at the Elbe Park and on the Autobahn towards Berlin.

When they later found out about the burglary, they reported it to the police.

A witness was later overtaken by the alleged getaway car at a construction site on the Brandenburg border.

Instead of the permitted 60 kilometers per hour, the other car had up to 200 on the speedometer, he said.

dpa