Three of the five arrested on Wednesday for alleged involvement in the theft of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in Paris were released this Saturday, with the remaining two being formally charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and organized crime.
Almost two weeks after the robbery, whose loot remains missing, a 38-year-old woman was charged this Saturday in the investigation into the robbery of the Louvre Museum, in Paris. The France-Presse news agency reveals that one of the accused is a “mother of the family” who cried when she learned of the court’s decision to be held in preventive detention.
The resident of La Courneuve, a town in the northern suburbs of Paris, cried during the hearing, saying she was “scared” for her children and herself, says AFP, who attended the hearing.
The other detainee, also accused of organized robbery and criminal association, was already known to the courts “namely for theft crimes”. The 37-year-old man was also provisionally detained, pending a hearing scheduled for the next few days before a judge.
The other three people detained were released after the period of preventive detention, leaving without any charges.
“In these cases of high crime, we find that the waves of arrests are more similar to dragnets,” Sofia Bougrine and Noémie Gorin, lawyers for one of the freed people, told AFP.
Among the suspects arrested on Wednesday was an alleged member of the four-man commando that committed the October 19 robbery, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau revealed.
“DNA traces” link him to the robbery, whose estimated value is 88 million euros, added Laure Beccuau. On October 25, two other men were placed in pre-trial detention. One of them was detained at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport as he prepared to leave for Algeria.
There are around a hundred investigators working to recover the loot and locate all the criminals involved, but the stolen jewelry remains missing. According to Laure Beccuau, researchers are exploring “a number of parallel markets”, as it is unlikely that the jewels will appear on the legal works of art market.
The October 19 robbery, which happened in less than eight minutes, provoked strong criticism of the lack of security at the Louvre, the most visited art museum in the world. On the day of the robbery, the four criminals managed to park a lift truck at the foot of the museum, allowing two of them to climb with a platform to the Apollo gallery, where the crown jewels are kept.
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