Oslo - Proceedings in the appeal trial of five men convicted
of involvement in the 2004 theft of two masterpieces by Norwegian
artist Edvard Munch drew to an end Thursday.
Judge Dag Stousland was slated to deliver his instructions to the
10-member jury on Friday before they begin their deliberations.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty when the appeal trial began
on February 20.
In his closing arguments earlier this week, Prosecutor Moren Hojem
Ervik urged the jury to convict all five men, and said four of them
should be sentenced for aggravated robbery.
Among the five was Stian Skjold, 31, whom the prosecution alleged
was one of the two armed robbers who entered the Munch Museum in
August 2004 and stole the paintings titled: The Scream and The
Madonna.
They then disappeared in a car, which was later found. Skjold's
alleged accomplice later died of a drug overdose.
The alleged driver of the getaway car, Petter Tharaldsen and Bjorn
Hoen, who the prosecution said masterminded the heist, were also in
court.
Defence attorneys maintained that the investigation and evidence
presented against their clients was shoddy.
'In this case, Norwegian society has sacrificed the legal rights
of the individual for art,' said defence lawyer Morten Furuholmen,
who defended Hoen. The 30-year-old was last year sentenced to seven
years in jail.
Details of how police recovered the two masterpieces from an Oslo
warehouse in August 2006 remained sealed despite appeals from the
defence.
Conservators said the paintings had suffered irreparable damage
when they were ripped from the walls but the damage was not evident
to an untrained eye.
Munch, who lived from 1863 to 1944, is considered one of Europe's
most important expressionist artists. He made several versions of the
two recovered works.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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