Prosecutors demand up to 5.5 years for gold helmet thieves

Prosecutors in Assen have demanded prison sentences of up to five and a half years for the three main suspects in the Drents Museum heist. Bernhard Z, who refused a plea deal in return for handing back Romanian treasures that were stolen in January 2025, faces the heaviest sentence.

Sentence demands of just over three and a half years each were made against the other two defendants, Douglas W and Jan B, who agreed to return the golden helmet of Cotofenesti and two of the three gold armbands two weeks ago in exchange for reduced sentences.

The deal, disclosed at the opening of the trial and reported by NOS, also includes an agreement that the Drents Museum will not seek damages from the two men and that neither they nor prosecutors will appeal. The court will rule on whether the plea agreement is acceptable when it delivers its verdict.

Returning the loot was “a hard demand”, the prosecutor said, describing “a lengthy and intensive process of negotiations” in which trust had been difficult to establish.

One of the three gold armbands is still missing, and prosecutors said there was no indication that the two men who agreed to the deal still had it. Bernard Z who refused the deal also told the court he had no information about the missing piece, and said he was angry to have been described as a main suspect.

“Mountain of evidence”

The prosecutor told the court there was a “torrent” of evidence against the three men, and that DNA traces, CCTV footage, bank and phone records and intercepted conversations showed they had carried out the break-in “as a team”. Prosecutors believe the group blew open a museum door with a powerful firework device before smashing display cases to take the gold.

The trial is being heard in full partly so the court can review unusual investigative methods used by prosecutors. These included publishing the names and photographs of defendants shortly after their arrest – an unusual step intended as a pressure tactic – and deploying undercover officers who posed as criminals wanting to buy the stolen items.

One defendant said he had been threatened by the officers; the prosecutor said investigators had “sought out the limits of the law but never crossed them”.

Drents Museum director Robert van Langh read a statement from colleagues at Romania’s national history museum in Bucharest, who described the “shock, anger and humiliation” felt there after the theft. He called on the suspects to return the final armband. “Only then can this terrible period really be closed.”