Two more people were charged on Saturday in the brazen burglary at the Louvre Museum last month, the Paris prosecutor said.
The two suspects were handed preliminary charges for their alleged involvement in the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre, three days after they were arrested by police as part of a sweeping investigation into the heist, the prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said in a statement.
Beccuau said a 37-year-old suspect was charged with participation in theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy. The other, a 38-year-old woman, is accused of being an accomplice. Further details are yet to be made public.
Both were remanded in custody. They both denied involvement, the prosecutor said.
Jewels worth €88 million were taken from the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, in a daylight robbery on Oct. 19.
The two suspects charged on Saturday were among five people arrested by police on Wednesday in connection with the case. The three others have been released without charges, Beccuau said.
Two men who had been taken into custody previously have already been charged with theft and criminal conspiracy in the Louvre robbery after officials said they “partially” admitted involvement in the crime. Those suspects are in their 30s and are from the northeast Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers, Beccuau said earlier.
One of the men is an Algerian who had booked a one-way ticket back to his home country. He was arrested at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport on Saturday. The other is a French national who had already been sentenced for theft in 2008 and 2014 and is set to be tried in November in a third case. He was arrested at home, Beccuau said.
Adrien Sorrentino, the lawyer for the woman charged on Saturday, told reporters his client is “devastated” because she disputes the accusations. “She does not understand how she is implicated in any of the elements she is accused of,” the lawyer said.
Beccuau said the investigation had confirmed that at least four thieves took part in the robbery, but that more participants may have been involved, including the possibility that the crime took place at a buyer’s behest.
The stolen jewelry has not yet been retrieved.
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