Kim Kardashian will testify in person on Tuesday at the trial of her alleged armed robbers who are accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of her jewellery.
Bound, gagged, and locked in the bathroom of a luxurious apartment in central Paris, Kim Kardashian feared death as a gang of robbers rampaged through the apartment where she was alone, while her bodyguard was out with her sister, Kourtney.
Ten people, including five male pensioners, will now face trial nearly nine years after the crime, which took place as Kardashian, then 35, visited the French capital for its 2016 Fashion Week.
The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy. Eight of the 10 deny any involvement in the case.
It is believed to be France’s biggest robbery of an individual person, with the value of stolen jewellery reported at nearly $10m, including an 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring gifted by former husband Kanye West worth $4m.
How did the heist unfold?
It was on 3 October 2016 when Kardashian was lying in the bed of the luxury apartment in central Paris, that she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. After calling out, and hearing no response, she knew something “wasn’t quite right”, she recalled in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians months after the crime.
Two men in police uniforms had handcuffed the concierge and forced him to let them into her apartment. “What I've heard from talking to him afterward is they said, you know, ‘Where’s the rapper’s wife? Let us up to her room!’ in French,” Kardashian recalled. “He ended up being our interpreter because I couldn't understand them, they couldn’t understand me.”
When she was dragged to the hallway at the top of the stairs, Kardashian said she saw that the pair were armed – and began to fear the worst.
“He pulled me toward him at the front of the bed and I thought, ‘OK, this is the moment they're going to rape me,’” she said. “I fully mentally prepped myself – and then he didn’t.”
The robber put duct tape round her legs and a gun to her head. She said: “I just knew that was the moment. They’re just totally going to shoot me in the head. I just prayed that Kourtney’s going to have a normal life after she sees my dead body on the bed.”
Kardashian told investigators she was taken to a bathroom and placed in the bathtub. Her attackers fled on bicycles or on foot, and she freed herself by removing the tape.
Who is on trial?
Twelve people were originally charged with the robbery, but 10 are now standing trial. One suspect died before the case reached trial and another, who was declared unable to participate for health reasons, will be tried separately.
Aomar Ait Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, is alleged to have orchestrated the operation to rob the global megastar. The 68-year-old admits participating in the heist but denies acting as the group’s ringleader.
Another alleged culprit was Yunice Abbas, a 71-year-old who has admitted his part in the robbery and even wrote a memoir about it.
Speaking out in French media ahead of the trial, Abbas said he was part of the group that entered the building and that he stood guard downstairs.
Having served 20 years in prison for robbery, Abbas had struggled financially after being out of prison for 10 years.
“I had a proposal for a big job, which would be my last … They told me there was a 20-carat diamond that wasn’t protected … That was tempting,” he told TF1 TV on Sunday. “I was told it was the wife of a rapper. I didn’t ask questions.”
What has Kardashian said about trial?
“We can confirm that Ms Kardashian will be testifying in person at the upcoming French criminal trial involving the 2016 incident in which she was bound and robbed at gunpoint by a number of masked assailants,” her lawyer Michael Rhodes said in a statement provided to the AP.
The reality TV star and entrepreneur has ″tremendous appreciation and admiration for the French judicial system″ and ″wishes for the trial to proceed in an orderly fashion in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case,” the lawyer said.
In a 2020 appearance on David Letterman’s Netflix show, Kardashian tearfully recalled: “This is the time I’m going to get raped. I’m like, ‘What is happening? Are we gonna die? Just tell them I have children. I have babies, I have a husband, I have a family.’”
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