(BBC News) Two more people have been charged over a theft at the Louvre Museum last month, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
A 38-year-old woman has been charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime. Separately, a man, aged 37, was charged with theft and criminal conspiracy. Both denied any involvement.
Two men who had previously been arrested were already charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after officials said they had “partially recognised” their involvement in the heist.
Jewels worth $102 million were taken from the world’s most-visited museum on October 19.
Four men carried out the lightning-quick daylight theft.
Two of the alleged thieves – who had been arrested earlier – later admitted their involvement.
The French public is relieved to see quick progress in the investigation – but many see the whole episode as a humiliating embarrassment for the country.
On Saturday, the woman who has been charged was in tears as she appeared before a magistrate and confirmed that she lived in Paris’s northern suburb of La Courneuve, a journalist working for the AFP news agency reported.
The magistrate later ruled that the woman – who has not been named – must stay in custody.
The 37-year-old man – whose identity has also not been revealed – was also ordered to stay in pre-trial detention. He is known to the French justice system for past robberies.
In the French judicial system, a suspect “placed under investigation” will normally – but not necessarily – end up facing trial. An examining magistrate is designated to lead the “investigation” into the person, looking in theory at material that might exculpate as well as incriminate.
In the meantime, the suspect can remain in detention if a judge believes he or she is a potential danger to the public, or might abscond, or might collude with others to arrange evidence.
This last argument was used to justify the continued detention of the 38-year-old woman.
The alleged role of the second suspect – the 37-year-old man – is not clear. But when the five were detained on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office said that one of them was linked by DNA to the crime scene.
Probably therefore he is suspected of being one of the two men who stayed on the street during the heist.
The fourth involved at the scene has not yet been caught.
Three other people held earlier this week have been released without charge.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgkk1mkg0po
