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    Trial begins: For Kim, it's not just about over $9M jewellery heist

    Kardashian’s lawyers said she will testify in person at the trial starting Monday and scheduled to run through May 23.

    Trial begins: For Kim, its not just about over $9M jewellery heist
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    Kim Kardashian 

    NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY

    Kim Kardashian thought she was going to be raped and killed when criminals broke into her bedroom in central Paris, tied her up and stole more than $6 million in jewellery.

    More than eight years later, 10 people will go on trial in Paris over the robbery, abduction and kidnapping of the media personality and the concierge of the residence where she was staying during Paris Fashion Week the night of Oct. 2, 2016.

    Kardashian’s lawyers said she will testify in person at the trial starting Monday and scheduled to run through May 23.

    In interviews and on her family’s reality TV show, Kardashian has described being terrified as robbers pointed a gun at her.

    In a 2020 appearance on David Letterman’s Netflix show, she tearfully recalled thinking: “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.’ ”

    Twelve people were originally expected in the defendants’ box. One of them has died and another is seriously ill and can’t be tried. According to the investigation, five of the 10 defendants were present at the scene of the robbery.

    The French press has dubbed them The Granddad Robbers because the main defendants are elderly and have careers as bank robbers with long criminal records.

    Kardashian told investigators she was taken to a bathroom next to her bedroom and placed in the bathtub. Her attackers fled on bicycles or on foot and she managed to free herself by removing the tape from her hands and mouth.

    She had also removed the tape from her feet and rushed to her stylist’s room. She called her sister Kourtney to tell her about the theft. Shortly afterwards, Kardashian told investigators that she had not been injured. She filed a complaint, adding that she wanted to leave France as soon as possible to be reunited with her children.

    According to her testimony and that of the concierge, at least one of the suspects had a handgun, with which he threatened the victims.

    The gangsters stole many pieces of jewellery, including a ring of great value, estimated to be worth more than $6 million.

    Two of the accused have partially confessed to the crime, as their DNA was found at the crime scene.

    The alleged ringleader, 68-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache, is one of two suspected robbers who allegedly entered the apartment. Nicknamed “Old Omar,” his genetic profile was found on the tape used to gag Kardashian.

    He left the hotel on a bicycle, as did two other robbers, then met his son, who was waiting for him in a parked car at a nearby train station.

    The second robber said he tied up the concierge with cables but did not go up to Kardashian’s apartment. Yunice Abbas, 71, said he acted as a lookout in the ground floor reception area, making sure the escape route was clear. Abbas was arrested in January 2017 and spent 21 months in prison before being released under judicial supervision. In 2021, he co-authored a French-language book titled “I Sequestered Kim Kardashian.”

    AP
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