The Paris prosecutor says two more people have been handed preliminary charges for their alleged involvement in a recent jewel heist at France’s Louvre Museum, days after they were arrested by Paris police as part of a sweeping probe.
Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement on Saturday that a 37-year-old suspect was charged with theft by an organised gang and criminal conspiracy, while the other, a 38-year-old woman, is accused of being an accomplice.
Both have been incarcerated and both denied involvement, said Beccuau.
The woman’s lawyer, Adrien Sorrentino, 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,” he said.
Five people were arrested by Paris police on Wednesday in connection with the case, including one who was identified by his DNA at the crime scene. Three of them have been released without charges, Beccuau said. Seven people have been arrested in total.
Last month, thieves wielding power tools raided the Louvre, the world’s most visited art museum, in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated $102m.
French authorities initially announced the arrest of two male suspects over the Louvre robbery.
The two men were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after “partially admitting to the charges”, Beccuau said this week.
They are suspected of being the two who broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.
Both lived in the northeastern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.
One is a 34-year-old Algerian national living in France, who was identified by DNA traces found on one of the scooters used to flee the heist. The second man is a 39-year-old unlicensed taxi driver.
Both were known to the police for having committed thefts.
The first was arrested as he was about to board a plane for Algeria at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
The second was apprehended shortly after near his home, and there was no evidence to suggest that he was planning to go abroad, prosecutors said.
The stolen loot remains missing.
The thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they escaped.
The burglars made off with eight other items of jewellery.
Among them are an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
Last week, the Louvre director told the French Senate the museum’s security operations “did not detect the arrival of the thieves soon enough”.
“Today we are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, which I take my share of responsibility in,” the director said, adding that she submitted her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who turned it down.
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