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ABERDEEN, Scotland, Apr 24, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A 56-year-old businesswoman in Aberdeen, Scotland, has been named as an accomplice in a $32 million diamond heist in Tokyo two years ago.
Prosecutors in Belgrade named Dorothy Fasola, 56, a fish exporter, as the fourth accomplice of two local men and a woman facing trial there for the robbery in March 2004.
The three are being tried in Belgrade as Serbia does not have an extradition treaty with Japan, The Times of London reported.
A few months after the robbery, Fasola's rented home in Scotland was searched by Japanese police, and in a statement issued through her lawyer she maintained her innocence and was not charged. Japanese police have said they believe she was a mastermind of the robbery. The British Home Office declined to say if Japan has sought extradition of Fasola.
Court papers allege that the two women kept watch in a cafe near the store while the men posed as customers and staff was attacked with pepper spray. The thieves stole a $30 million Comtesse de Vendome diamond necklace, along with other gems. None of it has been recovered.
Fasola, who was married to an Italian was sentenced to five years in jail in Italy for orchestrating a gold robbery and insurance scam in 1991, the report said.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
