Twins Suspected of Diamond Heist

Feb 23, 2009— -- Investigations into the spectacular heist at Berlin's luxury department store KaDeWe have run into a problem: The suspected robbers may be identical twins. That means that the traces of DNA found at the crime scene could be useless under German law.

Germany's Federal Statistical Office is a constant source of news. And sometimes it's even good news. In early January, the bureau's "News of the Week" announced that the national number of multiple births had increased to 22,400 in 2007. Among those, 21,600 were twins. Germany's Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen must have been pleased.

But in other government departments, the subject of twins is a bit of a sore spot. The reason can be traced to Abbas and Hassan O., brothers from a large Lebanese family from Lower Saxony, who are suspects in a spectacular heist at Berlin's famous department store, Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe).

The duo, together with an unidentified third man, are thought to have climbed onto the roof and into the luxury department store in the early morning hours of Jan. 25. Police investigators believe the masked men lowered themselves into the store's main hall, evading motion detectors, and broke open countless display cases. The thieves made off with watches and jewelry worth millions of euros.

So far, there has been no official confirmation that Abbas and Hassan O. are indeed identical twins. Photographs of the two, though, would appear to support the assumption. One official told SPIEGEL ONLINE: "It's impossible to tell them apart. To me, it's obvious that they are identical twins."