Pink Panther gang member found dead
dubai — A member of a gang internationally known as Pink Panther, who was serving a 10-year jail term over a charge of aiding and abetting in Wafi Mall jewellery shop heist, had been found dead in prison, the Court of Appeals was told on Wednesday.
The appellate court bench, which was set to hold a hearing on the case, was informed the 34-yearold Serbian had been found dead a few weeks earlier in his cell in Al Aweer central prison.
The man had been going through an appeal against the verdict by the Court of First Instance in last November and he was the third ‘Pink Panther’ to stand trial in Dubai in connection with the sensational heist. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of involvement in the armed robbery charge.
The group of robbers drove two stolen Audi A8s through the glass façade at the mall before stopping at the House of Graff and making their getaway with jewellery and watches worth Dh14.7 million in front of stunned shoppers in April 2007.
The Pink Panther gang is a loosely aligned network of criminals who targeted high-end jewellery stores between 1999 and 2015. The deceased committed many robberies in Europe. He was arrested by the Spanish authorities in February 2014 and handed over to the UAE authorities in October 2015.
Apart from the robbery charge, he was also accused of obtaining an entry permit with a forged passport and illegally entering and exiting the UAE. It was learned that he entered the UAE with a forged Yugoslavian passport on March 24, 2007, and exited on April 17, 2007. During that time, he stayed with a Bosnian accomplice in a flat in Al Rafaa.
A police lieutenant said: “The accused was arrested by the Interpol after DNA traces (picked up from the robbery scene) matched with the samples saved in the Interpol’s database.”