From BZ/dpa
The burglary in the Green Vault in November 2019 caused repair costs of more than 316,000 euros in the Baroque Treasury Museum in Dresden.
At 256,000 euros, the most expensive was the replacement of four showcases including safety glass, as an architect from the state company responsible for the residential palace testified on Friday in the jewel theft trial at the Dresden Regional Court. A further 32,000 euros were added to the destroyed entry window, mirrors and other equipment in the affected rooms.
The repairs are not yet complete, the window grille severed by the perpetrators is still “a temporary measure,” said the witness. It is not possible to restore the museum to its pre-burglary condition due to different requirements than the refurbishment in the mid-2000s.
Six young men between the ages of 23 and 28 are charged with aggravated gang theft, arson and particularly aggravated arson. The Germans from a well-known Arab family in Berlin are said to have stolen 21 pieces of jewelery with a total of 4,300 diamonds and brilliants with a total value of over 113 million euros from the Dresden Museum in the early morning of November 25, 2019 and left behind damage of over one million euros. They are also accused of setting fire to an electricity box in the old town and a getaway car in an underground car park.
The evaluation of their cell phones and those of other suspects showed that the perpetrators used at least two so-called fake cell phones that were registered under false or unknown personal details, as investigators reported. Telephone calls from these devices corresponded “with striking clarity” to the times at which the vehicles they used were moved. The perpetrators are said to have repeatedly driven from Berlin to Dresden in the week before the burglary and also climbed over the wall to the entrance window of the museum in the Residenzschloss. On video recordings they were seen on the phone and these times also matched the phone calls made by the fake devices.
The presiding judge Andreas Ziegel said that the results of the mantrailer operation would not be used. The board sees no probative value of these animals, he said. On June 10, two experts had ruled out in court that traces of smells lasted a year and a half and that the specially trained dogs actually found what they were looking for in and around the museum.
According to a gold and silversmith working as an expert for the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the jewelry stolen cannot be valued by today’s standards. There are no comparable stones in terms of purity and cut. The value of around 113 million euros stated in the indictment is the sum for which the jewelry was insured as a loan for exhibitions.
A Dresden investigator reported that the evaluation of the mobile phones led to a Bochum pump room and a mobile phone shop in Berlin-Neukölln, where apparently SIM cards were traded “on a large scale”. When the store was searched, the documents from the crime period had disappeared. “You have obviously been warned.” In the shop, indications were also found that identity card data was withdrawn “on a large scale” and that some of this was misused. The business has ten to 15 branches – including one in Dresden. The trial will resume in a week.
