Louvre heist: One suspect charged, another released
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Thieves wielding power tools raided the Louvre in broad daylight last month.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS – A 38-year-old woman arrested this week along with four other people over the unprecedented jewel heist at the Louvre on Nov 1 appeared before a magistrate who will decide whether to detain her.
The suspect, who lives in the northern La Courneuve suburb of Paris, has been charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime.
Separately, another suspect has been released without charge, his lawyers told AFP on Nov 1.
In October, thieves wielding power tools raided the Louvre
The French authorities initially announced the arrest of two suspects, and this week prosecutors said that police had arrested five more people
One of the five suspects was released without charge on Oct 31, said his lawyers, Ms Sofia Bougrine and Ms Noemie Gorin.
“In these serious crime cases, we find that waves of arrests look more like drift nets,” Ms Bougrine told AFP, pointing to what she said was the indiscriminate nature of some of the arrests.
Early on Nov 1, several suspects arrested this week appeared before magistrates at a Paris court. The Paris public prosecutor’s office did not specify the number of suspects brought before the court.
The first two men arrested previously were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after “partially admitting to the charges”, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said this week.
They are suspected of being the two who broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.
The stolen loot remains missing. AFP
