Morocco court jails cleaner for 15 years for stealing King’s watches

A cleaner has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing dozens of luxury watches belonging to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. A court in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, sentenced prison term to the 46-year-old woman who was accused of stealing 36 luxury watches.

The convict initially sold the watched after melting it down but later started selling it as intact timepieces. Another 14 people involved in the crime, as intermediaries or as traders, were sentenced to at least four years in prison.

Theft of Picasso’s artwork

In another high profile theft case, legendary Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s electrician was recently guilty for the third time as France’s top appeals court upheld the earlier jail sentence. Pierre Le Guennec and his wife Danielle had hoarded 271 artworks of the great painter in their garage for 40 years.

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The artworks were seized from Le Guennec when he tried to get it authenticated from Picasso’s son and manager of the Picasso administration, Claude Picasso. In the decade-long legal battle over the paintings of Picasso, Le Guennec had earlier claimed the paintings were gifted to him by the artist as a gesture of thanks for his “loyal service”. Later, he changed the story saying Picasso’s widow Jacqueline had entrusted him with a larger collection of paintings and had asked him to hide it after painter’s death.

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The convict, who was hired by Picasso for running errands and performing odd-jobs, further elaborated that he had kept the paintings in 12 garbage bags as per the directives of Jacqueline. According to Le Guennac, Jacqueline took the collection with her at some point in time but left behind one bag saying, “Keep this, it’s for you”. 

In 2015, the couple was handed over two-year suspended terms after getting convicted in the theft case. A higher court upheld the verdict in 2016 but the Cour de Cassation ordered a retrial quashing the decision. The latest decision of two years suspended jail sentence can no longer be appealed in any court even though the couple has maintained that they are innocent and denied stealing.

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(With inputs from agencies)