Four More Cleared over $50m Brussels Diamond Heist

(IDEX Online) -  Four defendants in the 2103 diamond heist at Brussels Airport were yesterday acquitted on appeal.

It follows the acquittal of 18 other defendants in a 2018 trial and means just one person has been convicted and jailed over the theft of diamonds valued at the time at $50m.

The appeals court in Brussels ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict the four.

The shipment of 120 diamond parcels was stolen as it was being loaded onto a Helvetic Airways plane bound for Zurich in February 2013.

Eight men dressed as police officers and armed with machine guns crashed through an airport perimeter fence in two vans as a security team was loading the cargo on the plane.

None of the passengers was aware of theft, no shots were fired and nobody was hurt.