German Court Convicts Five Men for Green Vault Jewel Heist
The Investigation and Trial
It took months for a special police task force, named “Epaulet,” to come up with solid leads, which started emerging when officers linked DNA found at the crime scene and the two burned getaway cars to members of the Remmo family. Another significant breakthrough came when the police found and questioned a man who had sold a batch of telephone SIM cards that were used during the robbery.
About a year after the break-in, nearly 1,700 police officers swooped on apartments, garages, a cafe and several cars during a raid in Berlin, and arrested three members of the crew. The others were arrested in the following months.
Their trial had been ongoing for almost a year when Rabieh Remo (who uses a different spelling of the family’s last name) recanted previous testimony and told the court he had actually been in the vault during the robbery. His admission was part of a deal the defense had negotiated with the court: return the jewels and confess to the crimes, in return for capped prison sentences. Three others also admitted to their part in the crime; one of the men could prove he was in the emergency room on the night of the robbery, and another insisted until the very end that he was not part of the heist.
But the deal had some odd stipulations. While the defendants agreed to confess to their own crimes, they had secured the right not to incriminate any accomplices whom the police had not yet caught. They were also given time with their lawyers to prepare answers to prosecutors’ questions.
Although the men on trial admitted to burglarizing the museum, they refused to admit significant aspects of the crime — such as planning and leadership — blaming unknown accomplices instead.
But the plea deal had a major upside: Most of the loot was returned. However, some important parts of the collection — including a significant diamond, an elaborate brooch and an epaulet — are still missing and others are damaged or oxidized.
Source: The New York Times
