Seven Georgian nationals will be tried in Paris starting Tuesday for the theft of rare editions of Russian literary classics from prestigious French libraries, including works by Alexander Pushkin, AFP reports.
The trial is the latest case seeking justice for a spate of similar thefts in recent years from libraries across Europe, suspected to be the work of an organised network.
The thefts targeted rare Russian classics worth millions of euros in total, including by 19th-century literary greats Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol.
The defendants on trial in France have been charged with criminal conspiracy and intent to commit an offence, while some of them are also charged with theft of an exhibited cultural object. They face up to 10 years in prison.
Two are being tried in absentia, with warrants out for their arrests.
Two others — identified only as Mikheil Z. and Beqa T. — have already been convicted and imprisoned in other countries for similar crimes and have been temporarily handed over to France.
Mikheil Z., 50, was sentenced last year in Lithuania to three years and four months in prison for the organised theft of 19th-century publications valued at 606,000 euros ($698,000).
Beqa T., 49, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison in Estonia.
French investigating judges suspect the defendants were part of “an organised criminal network”, according to parts of the investigation seen by AFP.
The thefts, which also hit Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, spurred the creation of a joint investigation team under the European Union police and justice coordination agencies Europol and Eurojust that led to several arrests in 2024.
