[MSN] Swedish court commutes prison sentences in stolen Rembrandt case

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Swedish court commutes prison sentences in stolen Rembrandt case

The Associated Press

An appeals court on Monday commuted prison sentences against three men convicted of trying to sell a stolen Rembrandt painting to an undercover agent, saying the crime was provoked by a police sting operation.

The men were given prison terms from one to two years by a district court last year for the US$245,000 (€190,000) sale of the Rembrandt self-portrait to an undercover agent in a hotel room in Copenhagen, Denmark.

However, the Svea Appeals Court said that while the three men — Alexander Lindgren, 30, and brothers Baha Kadhum, 28, and Dieya Kadhum, 25 — were guilty, they should be set free because police had gone too far to provoke the offense.

The sting operation involved U.S., Danish and Swedish agents and was set up with the help of Lindgren's father, who tricked his son into bringing the painting to an agent posing as a potential buyer, prosecutors said. In exchange, the father was promised a reduced penalty on his own drug charges in Los Angeles, prosecutors and defense lawyers said.

Swedish law is unclear about to what extent police can provoke crimes through undercover operations.

The appeals court said that while it is not illegal for Swedish police to provoke crimes, a European Union court has previously ruled that such methods should lead to reduced sentences.

The court also emphasized that the point of the sting operation was to recover the stolen painting, rather than to convict the sellers, who have not been tied to the actual theft.

The ruling was the first of its kind in Sweden, said Tomas Rothpfeffer, a lawyer for Dieya Kadhum.

Armed robbers stole the Dutch master's self-portrait from Stockholm's National Museum in 2000, along with two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. All have now been recovered.

Ten people were convicted in 2001 of involvement in the theft, including a brother of the Kadhums.

http://www.iht.com