A passion for Russian classics landed Georgian citizens in a French prison
In France, six Georgian citizens received prison sentences ranging from 18 months to seven years on charges of stealing rare books by Russian writers from European libraries.
The defendants in the case are five men and a woman. Only four of them were present at the hearing; the other two were previously detained and sentenced to five years each.
As reported by media, Georgia has not extradited its citizens. A Paris court sentenced them in absentia to six years each.
Courts in other countries have sentenced two more defendants in the case. Specifically, the main defendant, Mikhail Z. (Zamtaradze), sentenced to seven years in prison in the French capital, was previously given three years and four months in Lithuania. He was extradited to France for trial.
The criminal prosecution is based on the charge of theft of at least 170 valuable books worth approximately €2.5 million from libraries in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Switzerland between 2022 and 2023. These were primarily rare editions of Russian writers, including Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol. Some of the stolen books were sold at auctions in Moscow and St. Petersburg. According to the BBC Russian Service, during the court hearing, Zamtaradze said he had received an order for the books from Moscow.
