By Tim Welch

On January 25, 2009, masked intruders stole about €5 million worth of jewelry and watches from an upscale department store in Berlin, Germany.   Surveillance cameras caught the crime on tape, and police found a glove containing identifiable DNA at the scene.   After the DNA was analyzed, the police were surprised to find that the DNA was linked to two men with criminal records, a pair of German twins identified as Hassan and Abbas O.   The twins were arrested on February 11, 2009.

Despite the DNA evidence, German police were forced to release Hassan and Abbas O. on March 18, 2009 because their DNA codes are virtually indistinguishable from each other using analysis methods accepted in German courts.   According to a Times Online report, "German law stipulates that each suspect must be individually proven guilty of a crime."   Since the DNA could not point to a specific suspect, German authorities were forced set the twins free.