One of many suspects in the armed theft of actuality TV star Kim Kardashian stated he regrets the “trauma” he precipitated her almost 9 years after Kardashian was certain, gagged and robbed at gunpoint throughout Paris Style Week in October 2016.
The theft was thought of the largest heist concentrating on a person that Paris had seen in a long time. The jury of six residents will conduct the trial, together with three magistrates — a process in France reserved for essentially the most severe crimes.
Defendant Yunice Abbas stated this was the primary time he really acknowledged the “trauma” he precipitated Kardashian, because the trial started Tuesday within the proceedings towards 10 folks charged in reference to the 2016 theft, the place greater than US$10 million value of bijou was stolen.
“I remorse it, not as a result of I acquired caught, however as a result of … there was a trauma,” Abbas, 72, advised the jury.
Defendant Yunice Abbas arrives for the beginning of the trial for the 2016 theft and kidnapping of U.S. superstar Kim Kardashian on the Assize Court docket of Paris, on April 28, 2025.
MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Abbas was the primary of a number of defendants set to testify within the trial and had beforehand confessed to his function within the crime in his 2021 ebook, titled I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, which got here up through the testimony.
He claimed that he was not answerable for the title of the ebook and he stated he was not concerned in tying up Kardashian through the theft, based on NBC Information.
Abbas stated he acted as a lookout on the reception space on the bottom ground, making certain the escape route was clear. He stated he was unarmed and didn’t personally threaten Kardashian, however acknowledged he shared accountability for the crime.
He was arrested in January 2017 and spent 21 months in jail earlier than being launched beneath judicial supervision. Abbas and 9 others, known as the “grandpa robbers” in native media as a result of their ages, are alleged to have performed totally different roles within the heist.
Based on Abbas, minutes after the raid began, his accomplices got here down from Kardashian’s residence and gave him a bag of bijou.
As he was fleeing the scene on a bicycle, he noticed a police automobile, however officers weren’t but conscious of the theft. Abbas stated that as he rode the bicycle, the bag containing the jewellery grew to become caught within the entrance wheel and he fell to the bottom, spilling the contents of the bag.
“I picked the jewels up and left,” he stated.
The next morning, a passerby discovered a diamond-encrusted cross on the street and handed it to police. That was the one jewellery from the theft that was ever recovered.
Abbas claimed he didn’t know Kardashian’s id on the time of the theft.
“I used to be advised a couple of well-known particular person, a rapper’s spouse. That’s all the data I had,” he stated. “Till the following morning, once I heard on TV in regards to the influencer. That’s once I understood who she was.”
Throughout questioning on Tuesday, Abbas spoke about his prison previous, together with an armed theft of a financial institution in Belgium. He stated that when he was youthful, he was against theft however later turned to a lifetime of crime because of the unhealthy influences of pals and cash difficulties.
He stated he “by no means had a task mannequin” and had completed what he believed he wanted to do to be able to present for his youngsters.
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Within the years following the theft, Abbas stated he now felt “very uneasy” about what befell that day, including, “I can’t do something moreover apologize.”
In her account to investigators, Kardashian described two males forcing their manner into her bed room at a personal residence complicated in Paris and pointing a gun in direction of her, asking for her ring. She stated she was tied up with plastic cables and tape whereas the intruders had been on the lookout for jewels, together with her engagement ring value tens of millions of {dollars}.
Twelve folks had been initially anticipated within the defendants’ field. One has died and one other is significantly sick and might’t be tried. Based on the investigation, 5 of the ten defendants had been current on the scene of the theft.
Others anticipated to face trial embrace the alleged ringleader, 68-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache; his son Harminy, 37, who’s accused of being the getaway driver; Didier Dubreucq, 69, generally known as “Blue Eyes,” who’s the second alleged robber suspected of coming into the flat; and Christiane Glotin, 78, who is predicted to face trial as an confederate within the heist.
This court docket sketch made on April 28, 2025 reveals defendants Aomar Ait Khedache (C, entrance), Francois Delaporte (R, up), Florus Heroui (2nd R, up) and Christiane Glotin (4th T, up) through the trial for the 2016 theft and kidnapping of U.S. superstar Kim Kardashian on the Assize Court docket of Paris, on April 28, 2025.
BENOIT PEYRUCQ/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The brother of Kardashian’s driver in Paris, Gary Madar, 35, can be anticipated to face trial. He’s accused of tipping the others off to Kardashian’s location.
Defendant Gary Madar through the trial for the 2016 theft and kidnapping of U.S. superstar Kim Kardashian on the Assize Court docket of Paris, on April 28, 2025.
MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Kardashian, 44, is predicted to testify in particular person on the trial, scheduled to run by Might 23. Her legal professionals stated she is going to testify in particular person and is predicted to talk on Might 13.
“Ms. Kardashian is reserving her testimony for the court docket and jury and doesn’t want to elaborate additional at the moment,” they stated. “She has nice respect and admiration for the French justice system and has been handled with nice respect by the French authorities.”
In interviews and on her household’s actuality TV present, she has described being terrified as robbers pointed a gun at her. She stated she thought she was going to be raped and killed.
In March 2017 on Retaining Up With the Kardashians, the mom of 4 theorized {that a} group of males had been following her household your complete Paris journey and admitted she was Snapchatting that night time, letting her followers know that everybody was going out, together with her then-bodyguard Pascal Duvier, and that she could be alone.
“What I believe occurred now after fascinated by it a lot is that there was in all probability a bunch of men that had been following us your complete journey. I used to be Snapchatting that I used to be dwelling and everybody was going out.
“That they had this window of alternative and simply went for it,” she stated.
She defined she was falling asleep in her room when she heard pounding on the steps. She thought it was her sister Kourtney and her assistant Stephanie. She continued to name out “whats up” with out getting any response.
“Then at that second, when there wasn’t a solution, my coronary heart began to get actually tense, like your abdomen simply form of like knots up, and also you’re like, ‘OK, what’s happening?’” she stated. “I knew one thing wasn’t fairly proper.”
She advised her sisters what occurred after the armed robbers entered.
“I noticed two guys holding one other man down in police uniforms, proper exterior of my bed room, 5 ft away. So I slid off my mattress and picked up my telephone, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know the right way to name 911 in a unique nation.’ So I known as Pascal after which the man got here in, grabbed the telephone from me, and threw me on the mattress. I used to be like, ‘That is it.’”
She says she acknowledged the concierge, who was handcuffed, holding the important thing to her room.
“What I heard from speaking to [the concierge] afterward, they stated, ‘The place’s the rapper’s spouse? Allow us to as much as her room,’” she stated.
“He grabbed my legs — I had no garments on beneath there — and he pulled me in direction of him on the entrance of the mattress and I assumed, ‘OK, that is the second he’s going to rape me,’” the Skims founder stated throughout her interview.
“I absolutely mentally prepped myself and he didn’t. He duct taped my legs collectively after which they’d the gun as much as me, I knew that was the second they had been completely going to shoot me within the head.”
Kardashian’s lawyer, Michael Rhodes, has stated the truth TV star and entrepreneur needs the trial “to proceed in an orderly vogue in accordance with French legislation and with respect for all events to the case.”
— With information from The Related Press
