A 38-year-old woman arrested this week with four other suspects in connection with the audacious jewel heist at the Louvre has been charged and remanded in custody.
The woman, who lives in La Courneuve, a northern suburb of Paris, broke down in tears during her court appearance on Saturday, expressing fear for “her children” and herself, according to AFP.
She faces charges of complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with intent to commit a crime. The magistrate justified her detention on the grounds of a “risk of collusion” and the potential for “public disorder.”
Out of the five suspects detained this week, two were formally charged on Saturday, while the remaining three were released without charge, police and judicial sources told AFP.
Last month, a group of thieves armed with power tools raided the Louvre — the world’s most visited art museum — in broad daylight. The heist, which lasted barely seven minutes, saw the burglars escape with jewels worth an estimated $102 million.
French authorities had initially announced the arrest of two male suspects linked to the robbery. This week, prosecutors confirmed that police had detained five additional individuals.
Adrien Sorrentino, the lawyer representing the woman now in custody, said his client “vehemently denies” the allegations. “She is devastated,” he told reporters. “This is a spectacular heist, and the decision just made is equally spectacular — a young woman has been detained despite being presumed innocent.”
Another person under investigation has also been placed in pre-trial detention, pending a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, sources said.
Sofia Bougrine, a lawyer for one of the three suspects released, criticised what she described as the indiscriminate nature of some arrests. “In these serious crime cases, we often see waves of arrests resembling drift nets,” she told AFP.
The two men initially arrested were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after partially admitting their roles, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed earlier in the week. They are suspected of being the burglars who entered the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.
Both men, residents of Aubervilliers in northeastern Paris, were already known to police for previous theft offences. One, a 34-year-old Algerian national, was identified through DNA traces found on a scooter used during the escape. He was apprehended at Charles de Gaulle Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Algeria.
The second suspect, a 39-year-old unlicensed taxi driver, was arrested near his home. Prosecutors said there was no indication that he planned to leave the country.
The stolen jewels remain missing. During their escape, the thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-encrusted crown once owned by Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.
Among the eight remaining stolen pieces are an emerald-and-diamond necklace given by Napoleon I to his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that also belonged to Empress Eugénie, adorned with nearly 2,000 diamonds.