A German court has convicted five men of breaking into a prominent museum and stealing jewelry and diamonds worth 100 million euros.
Per ABC News and German news agency dpa, the men, ages 24 to 29, all received prison sentences ranging from four years and four months to six years and three months. One defendant was acquitted.
The incident transpired on Nov. 25, 2019, at the Green Vault Museum, and was considered one of Germany's most spectacular jewelry heists. The robbery began after the men allegedly started a fire in order to cut the power grid to the street lights outside. When they broke into the museum, they stole 21 pieces of jewelry filled with over 4,300 diamonds, including a large diamond brooch and a diamond epaulet. The total haul was valued at around $129 million euros, and the men were arrested a few months later as part of raids on Germany's capital.
They were charged with particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson. The judges who heard the case said a few of the suspects had acted with “considerable criminal energy,” with an aim “to get rich."
More than 100 witnesses and 11 experts gave testimony during the trial's main proceedings, according to the news agency. Four defendants agreed to a plea bargain and via their lawyers admitted they were involved in the crime. The fifth defendant confessed, but only to helping obtain certain objects such as axes to cut through museum display cases. Most of the jewels were returned, but many of Green Vault's biggest pieces reportedly remain missing.
Presiding Judge Andreas Ziegel said regardless the collection was probably "destroyed forever."
“There are things in your life that are worth living a different life for,” the judge said in closing. “It’s your choice what you do with your life."
