Sawt Falasteen - Two more suspects charged over Louvre heist

That brings to four the number of people now charged over the spectacular robbery.

The latest to be charged, a 38-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man were arrested on Wednesday along with three other individuals, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said. The other three have now been released without charge.

The woman was in tears as she appeared at a Paris court, saying she feared for her children and for herself, an AFP reported witnessed.

She has been charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing a crime.

The magistrate justified the detention of the woman, who lives in the French capital's northern suburb of La Courneuve, on the grounds of a "risk of collusion" and "disturbance of public order".

The man was charged with organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing a crime, the Paris prosecutor said.

The individual was known to the judicial authorities for previous theft offences, she said.

He has been placed in pre-trial detention pending a hearing to take place in the coming days, the prosecutor added.

"Both individuals denied any involvement in the events," Beccuau said.

- 'Like drift nets' -

Last month, thieves wielding power tools raided the Louvre, the world's most visited art museum, in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated $102 million.

French authorities initially announced the arrest of two male suspects over the Louvre robbery, and this week prosecutors said that police had arrested five more people including a main suspect.

Adrien Sorrentino, a lawyer for the woman who was remanded in custody, said his client "vehemently" denied the charges against her.

"She is devastated," he told reporters.

"This is a spectacular heist, and the decision that has just been made is a spectacular one: a young woman has just been placed in detention despite being presumed innocent."

Sofia Bougrine, a lawyer for one of the people arrested this week but later released, pointed to what she said was the indiscriminate nature of some of the arrests.

"In these serious crime cases, we find that waves of arrests look more like drift nets," Bougrine told AFP.

- Minister still 'confident' -

The first two men arrested earlier were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after "partially admitting to the charges", Beccuau said earlier this week.

They are suspected of being the two who broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.

Both lived in the northeastern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.

One is a 34-year-old Algerian national living in France, who was identified by DNA traces found on one of the scooters used to flee the heist. The second man is a 39-year-old unlicensed taxi driver.

Both were known to the police for having committed thefts.

The first was arrested as he was about to board a plane for Algeria at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

The second was apprehended shortly after near his home, and there was no evidence to suggest that he was planning to go abroad, prosecutors said.

The stolen loot remains missing.

The thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they escaped.

The burglars made off with eight other items of jewellery.

Among them are an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.

"I remain confident that we will be able to find them," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told French daily Le Parisien.

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T.Khatib--SF-PST