 An Algerian court sentenced five Germans caught in the Sahara Desert with a hoard of artefacts to three months imprisonment and more than $543,000 in fines and damages. The verdict was handed down Monday evening by the court in Djanet, 1,700 kilometres southeast of the capital Algiers, after an eight-hour trial. Ernst Hellmeler, 53; Maria Kellner El Friede, 44; Elsabeth Wolf, 56; Dirk Lehman, 38, and Wofzang Grahammer, 43, were convicted of pillaging, attempted trafficking of prohibited goods and violating national park regulations.
| I'll bet they ignored the "No Smoking" signs, too... |
The Germans' defence attorney vowed to appeal. "They are not pillagers but adventurers," he said before the trial started.
| "They regarded pillaging as an adventure..." |
| If they liked pillaging, they'll really love an Algerian prison |
The defendants, arrested Nov. 20 in the Djanet region with 133 protected historic artefacts, could have faced a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment. As well as the three-month sentence, the court also ordered fines worth $80,800, equivalent to the value of the recovered artefacts, and damages equal to $467,600 for the Tassili National Park in the Sahara from where they were stolen. |