Around two years after a gold art bird's nest was stolen from a school in Berlin, a 20-year-old was sentenced to four and a half years of youth imprisonment.
The district court of Berlin-Tiergarten found the young man from a large family of Arab origin guilty of, among other things, theft in a particularly serious case on Monday.
The presiding judge justified the judgment that he had planned to break into the school with at least one accomplice using special tools.
The act moves in the area of high crime.
A previous conviction was included in the sentence.
In order to get to the filigree exhibit, according to the indictment, the perpetrators are said to have used a glass saw to destroy the bulletproof glass and completely welded showcase that was embedded in the wall on the night of May 15, 2019.
The burglars had previously gained access to the foyer by smashing a window near the main entrance with a tool.
Several pieces of evidence, including a DNA trace of the accused on the handle of the entry window, would have led to a certain guilty verdict, the court said.
The work of art, worth around 30,000 euros, has disappeared to this day, it said.
The court ordered the collection of compensation in this amount.
Investigators suspect that the “gold nest”, like the 100 kilo gold coin stolen in 2017 from the Berlin Bode Museum, could have been melted down.
Clan members were convicted of stealing the coin.
The young defendant, who had several criminal records, remained silent about the allegations.
His defense lawyers pleaded for acquittal.
They have already announced an appeal.