Germans Get 5 Years in Prison for Stealing from Pyramids

Three Germans and five Egyptians were sentenced to five years in prison for stealing Pharaonic relics from the Great Pyramids. The three Germans were sentenced in absentia after claiming they were scientists and entering a part of the Pyramid that was not accessible to the public. Under false pretenses, as the Court ruled, the defendants abstracted samples of a wall which is, of course, prohibited. Being self-proclaimed experimental archaeologists, the German 'scientists' pretended to take them for scientific purposes only in an attempt to prove that the pyramids are in fact older than before thought.  

Included in the sentence was an additional team of six Egyptians, three of them being employees of the Antiquities Ministry, two security guards and one travel agent who were in on the job. The heist was discovered at the end of 2013. By August 2014, the pieces were recovered and the masterminds behind it were charged. Germany and Egypt do not have an extradition agreement which means the Germans will most likely not face their verdict. Additionally, an investigation was opened against Egypt's former Head of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, who is suspected of playing a role in the theft. Hawass, however, denied these accusations and discarded them as "totally unfounded."