(13 Jun 2013)
FILE: Zaventem - 19 February 2013
1. Wide of an example of a Helvetic plane, which was due to have flown the diamonds to Zurich, parked at gate in Brussels Airport
2. Wide of runway at Brussels Airport
3. Close of flight information board displaying as destination, Zurich (where the diamonds were supposed to go)
4. Wide exterior of Brussels Airport departure area
5. Close of Brussels Airport sign
FILE: Antwerp - 19 February 2013
6. Various of a diamond on display at the World Diamond Centre in Antwerp
7. Close of another diamond on display
Brussels - 13 June 2013
8. Close of sign outside the Belgium prosecutor's office
9. King's prosecutor's substitute Anja Bijnens arriving for press briefing
10. Cutaway of camera
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Anja Bijnens, King's prosecutor's substitute:
"On the Zaventem heist case, there was a (fact finding) commission in Morocco, so Belgian investigators went to Morocco in order to exchange information with their Moroccan counterparts, and the Moroccan authorities gave the information that according to them the total amount of the haul is much bigger than originally estimated. This information is now in the file under investigation and is being looked into."
FILE: Antwerp - 19 February 2013
12. Close of a Brinks security truck logo
13. Mid of a Brinks security truck parked in the Antwerp diamond district
14. Exterior of the Antwerp Diamond Bank
15. Wide of the Antwerp diamond district
STORYLINE:
Belgian authorities said on Thursday they were investigating whether the spectacular diamond heist at Brussels airport in February might have yielded much more than the 50 (m) million US dollars first reported.
The Brussels prosecutor's spokeswoman Anja Bijnens said Thursday that Moroccan investigators cooperating in the probe have said that the haul was "much bigger than originally estimated."
De Morgen newspaper said the Moroccan investigators placed the total at 300 million euros (400 million US dollars), but Bijnens would not confirm the figure.
The Antwerp World Diamond Center immediately sought to quash the report.
"The value of the diamonds that were stolen in Zaventem are well and truly 50 million US dollars," spokeswoman Caroline De Wolf told VTM network adding that the figures were confirmed by police, transporters and the insurance companies.
The report emerged after Belgian authorities recently visited counterparts in Morocco, where several threads of the probe have led.
If the loss was bigger than reported, that would raise suspicions that much of the cache was being transported illicitly for commercial gain.
Seven suspects remain in jail in Belgium and another with links to Morocco is behind bars in Metz, France.
There are reports part of the loot ended up in Morocco and Switzerland.
The February 18 heist, one of the biggest diamond thefts of recent times, was as stunning as it was brazen.
The diamonds from the global diamond centre of Antwerp had been loaded at Brussels airport on a plane bound for Zurich when robbers, dressed in dark police clothing and hoods, drove through a hole they had cut in the airport fence.
They drove onto the tarmac in two black cars with blue police lights flashing, approached the plane, brandished machine guns, offloaded the diamonds, then fled in an operation which barely took five minutes.
Later that night, investigators found the charred remains of a van most likely used by the robbers.


Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть