New trial ordered for suspected Scream thief
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A suspected mastermind of the 2004 theft of Edvard Munch's expressionist masterpiece The Scream will receive a new trial, a Norwegian appeals court ruled on Thursday (local time).
Bjoern Hoen had been convicted by both a district and an appeals court before Norway's Supreme Court last January questioned the verdict.
His original sentence of nine years behind bars was voided after the Supreme Court judges ruled there was reason to doubt the credibility of one of the key witnesses in the case.
The case was sent back to the Oslo Appeals Court, which on Thursday agreed that sufficient proof of Hoen's guilt had not been well enough established during the first two trials.
He will now be tried again.
Two armed, masked robbers entered an Oslo museum in August 2004, snatching The Scream and Madonna - also by Munch - from the walls as horrified tourists looked on.
The works were recovered in August 2006.
The circumstances of their recovery and whereabouts while stolen remain a mystery.
Two men have already been convicted in the case.
Stian Skjold, one of the two who actually entered the Oslo Munch Museum to steal the paintings, was sentenced to six years in prison, while the driver of the getaway car, Petter Tharaldsen, was sentenced to 10 years and six months behind bars.
Skjold's suspected accomplice inside the museum died of a heroin overdose on November 3, 2006, before he could be charged.
- AFP
