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Thursday, December 18, 2025 | Daily Newspaper published by GPPC Doha, Qatar.

Tag Results for "Louvre jewellery heist" (2 articles)

French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on October 19. AFP
International

Woman charged over Louvre heist tears up in court

A woman arrested this week along with four other suspects over the unprecedented jewel heist at the Louvre was charged and remanded in custody on Saturday.The 38-year-old was in tears as she appeared at a Paris court, saying she feared for "her children" and for herself, according to AFP.She has been charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime.The magistrate justified the detention of the woman who lives in the French capital's northern suburb of La Courneuve on the grounds of a "risk of collusion" and "disturbance of public order".In total, two of the five people arrested this week were charged on Saturday, while the other three have been released without charge, police sources and sources close to the case told AFP.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 $102 million.French authorities initially announced the arrest of two male suspects over the Louvre robbery, and this week prosecutors said that police had arrested five more people.Adrien Sorrentino, a lawyer for the woman who was remanded in custody, said his client "vehemently" denied the charges against her."She is devastated," he told reporters."This is a spectacular heist, and the decision that has just been made is a spectacular one: a young woman has just been placed in detention despite being presumed innocent."One other person under investigation has also been placed in pre-trial detention, pending a hearing postponed until Tuesday, said one of the sources.Three of the five people arrested this week were released without charge.Sofia Bougrine, a lawyer for one of them, pointed to what she said was the indiscriminate nature of some of the arrests."In these serious crime cases, we find that waves of arrests look more like drift nets," Bougrine told AFP.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.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.

Police officers stand guard near the Louvre Pyramid, after French police arrested suspects in the Louvre heist case, at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, on Sunday. REUTERS
International

Suspects in Louvre jewel heist arrested near Paris

One was about to fly to Algeria, Le Parisien saysParis prosecutor angered by leaking of arrestNo indication jewels have been recovered Suspects have been arrested over the brazen jewellery heist at the Louvre, just as one of them was about to fly out of France, the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday. Two men in their 30s and originally from the capital's Seine-Saint-Denis suburb - which includes some of the country's most deprived areas - were detained on Saturday evening, according to Le Parisien newspaper, which first broke the story. They were known to French police and one of the suspects was about to fly to Algeria from Charles de Gaulle airport, the newspaper said. There was no indication on Sunday that any of France's stolen crown jewels had been recovered. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not say how many people were arrested or give any more details about them. In a statement, she deplored the fact that information about their arrest was leaked. "This revelation can only hinder the investigative efforts of the 100 or so mobilised investigators, both in the search for the stolen jewellery and for all the perpetrators. It is too early to provide any specific details," Beccuau said. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, under public pressure to deliver results a week to the day after the robbery, congratulated investigators in a tweet, but gave no more detail. Four hooded thieves made off with eight precious pieces worth an estimated $102 million from the Louvre's collection on October 19, exposing security lapses at the world's most-visited museum. They broke in using a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours and escaped on motorbikes. News of the robbery reverberated around the world, prompting soul-searching in France over what some regarded as a national humiliation. The stolen treasures included a tiara and an earring from the jewellery of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense from the early 19th century. The crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, was found damaged outside the museum. The thieves apparently dropped the piece, made of gold, emeralds and diamonds, as they made their getaway. Built in the late 12th century, the Louvre Palace used to be the official residence of the kings of France, until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles. It was turned into a museum for the royal art collection in 1793, four years after the French Revolution. Its huge collection of masterpieces, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo statue, brought in 8.7 million visitors last year.