Germany: Court convicts five men over theft of jewels in Dresden worth nearly £100m
The defendants covered their faces as they were brought into Dresden's state court room
A German court has convicted five men over the theft of 18th-century jewels worth more than €100 million (£87 million).
The men, who committed the crime in Dresden's Green Vault Museum in 2019, were given prison sentences of between four years and four months and six years and three months, Germany's dpa news agency reported.
A separate defendant was acquitted.
Dresden's state court ruled that the five men - aged 24 to 29 - were responsible for the break-in and subsequent theft of 21 pieces of jewellery, containing more than 4,300 diamonds.
Altogether the stolen jewels had an insured value of at least 113.8 million euros (£99 million).
Officials said at the time that the items taken included a large diamond brooch and a diamond epaulette.
The Green Vault is one of the world's oldest museums and was established in 1723.
Augustus the Strong of Saxony's treasury is contained within it, comprising around 4,000 objects of gold, precious stones and other materials.
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The men were convicted of particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson.
They started a fire just before the break-in to cut the power supply to street lights outside the museum, and also set fire to a car in a nearby garage before fleeing to Berlin.
Police caught the group several months later during raids in Germany's capital city.
In January, a plea bargain was submitted between the defence, prosecution and court, following the return of most of the stolen jewels.
The plea bargain had been agreed to by four defendants, who subsequently admitted their involvement in the crime through their lawyers.
The fifth defendant also confessed, but only to the procurement of objects, such as the axes used to make holes in the museum display case.
A claim of almost €89 million (£77 million) for damages had been submitted in court by the state of Saxony - where Dresden is located.
The claim included jewellery pieces that were returned damaged, for those still missing and for repairs to the destroyed display cases and museum building.
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