In the court in Assen, today is the first public session on the artok of the Drents Museum. The court focuses in particular on whether the custody of two male suspects of 34 and 36 years old from Heerhugowaard should be extended.
For the theft of a Romanian historic golden helmet and three gold bracelets in the night of January 25, a total of six men and one woman were arrested. Three men are still stuck. The art treasures were for the exhibition Dacia Empire of gold and silver In Assen on loan of the National Historical Museum in Bucharest. They are of great cultural -historical value and not found to this day.
The perpetrators arrived around a quarter to four in the morning after they had an explosive go off. Of these are camera images. The perpetrators only needed a few minutes to steal the top pieces of the collection.
According to the camera images, at least three people have been inside. Shortly thereafter, a car burned out on the Grolloërstraat in Marwijksoord, under the viaduct of the N33. The license plates on the flight car were stolen in the Frisian Witmarsum.
At the end of January the two men aged 34 and 36 were arrested and a woman from Heerhugowaard. The police tracked them through the find of a bag and clothing in Assen. DNA would then have been found that matched with DNA of suspects in the national database.
The police later shared the images of the two men online. Their identity was also announced. That happened after they didn’t want to tell where the art treasures are. The police also shared images of a man in the Praxis in Assen.
The man on those images bought a hammer that may have been used in the art. This is a 20-year-old man from Heerhugowaard, who was arrested on April 23. The twenties is also stuck. The court will decide later on his custody.
Last Wednesday, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) decided to release a 26-year-old man from Heerhugowaard. That man too was stuck so far, but according to the OM it turned out that he had not played a role in the implementation of the robbery, but had a ‘supporting role’.
The Public Prosecution Service also announced on Wednesday to give more explanation of the state of affairs in the investigation into the art. This happens this morning during the first introductory session. The substantive treatment will take a while.
The case received a lot of media attention worldwide. The Romanian media reported that the director of the National Historical Museum in Romania was fired in the aftermath of the art. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Cioloacu left via the Romanian channel Stirile Protv know how to demand an “unprecedented compensation” of the Netherlands for the robbery.