Four men convicted of one of the largest robberies in Dutch history will simply have to serve their prison sentences. The Supreme Court ruled this today. During the diamond heist at Schiphol in 2005, diamonds worth 73 million euros were stolen.
The cargo of diamonds with destination Antwerp was stolen at the airport from a high-security cargo terminal. 30 million worth of diamonds were later recovered. The remaining part, worth 73 million euros, was never found.
At the time, no one could be convicted of the robbery due to a lack of evidence, but after a resumption of the investigation and a major undercover operation, three main suspects were charged in 2017. The three were sentenced to 9.5 years in prison on appeal by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal. A fourth suspect received a sentence of almost a year in prison for laundering (part of) the loot.
The suspects’ lawyers appealed against that ruling, partly because they believe that mistakes were made in the use of evidence from the undercover operation. They did not find it, the Council said on Tuesday. The penalties therefore remain in place.