Five of the defendants in the trial of the theft in the Green Vault have already confessed. Now one of them is reporting to the court about the meticulously planned actions of the gang. Particularly interesting for the court: there was allegedly no client.
According to one of the defendants, there was no customer for the theft of jewels from the historic Green Vault. The saleability of the jewelry was assessed as good, said one of the defendants in the trial for the burglary at the Dresden district court in his questioning by the public prosecutor's office.
There were people in the background who offered to take care of the recycling. The crime plan was already in place when he was approached by a 24-year-old co-defendant and asked if he wanted to take part. He was inaugurated by this and two unaccused accomplices. "It was actually about the things that were then stolen." When asked whether the plan called for firearms or other weapons, he said no. No further thought was given to the risk, a defender explained. "It was supposed to be a lightning burglary. In-out."
At the beginning of the day of the trial, the defense requested that the trial not decide on the damages. One of the lawyers criticized the claim sums mentioned in the Free State's application for adhesion. He argued that the theft was abetted by the lack of adequate security in the display cases for items of significant value. These were also not restored to their original condition, but were completely renewed. However, only repair costs should be claimed in order to restore the original condition.
In addition, the sum called for damage to the museum of almost 316,000 euros is disputed, as is the damage relating to the stolen pieces of jewellery. The stated value of the returned objects of just under 43 million euros, the damage of almost 25.6 million euros and the missing jewelry of over 51.3 million euros are not proven, according to the defense attorney. Since insurance values are also not objective, the court can only base an estimate on speculation.
The art theft from Saxony's Treasury Museum on November 25, 2019 is considered one of the most spectacular in Germany. According to the indictment, the perpetrators stole 21 pieces of jewelry made of diamonds and brilliants with a total value of over 113 million euros and caused damage of more than one million euros. For a year now, six men between the ages of 23 and 29 have had to answer for this.
Five defendants admitted in January that they were involved in the coup or the preparation. Another accused denies being a perpetrator with reference to an alibi. After preliminary discussions in the course of the subsequent agreement between the defense, public prosecutor's office and court, a large part of the loot was returned to the State Art Collections shortly before Christmas 2022, some of it damaged.
