A Cairo criminal court sentenced an antiquities inspector to life imprisonment (25 years) in a high-profile case involving the theft and smuggling of 370 ancient artifacts from a landmark museum.
The ruling comes in one of the largest antiquities smuggling cases to hit Egypt’s cultural heritage sector, with three defendants charged with conspiring with an unidentified accomplice to smuggle the stolen artifacts out of the country.
The case dates back to 2015. According to court documents, the defendants, including two antiquities inspectors, exploited weak security measures and poor storage controls inside the museum’s storage facilities to steal artifacts entrusted to their colleagues.
Investigations revealed that two of the defendants produced counterfeit replicas of the original artifacts, placing the fakes in storage rooms to conceal the crime, while the authentic pieces were smuggled abroad in coordination with an unidentified individual.
Prosecutors said the defendants were fully aware that the artifacts constituted priceless national heritage protected by law.