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Reality star Kim Kardashian is set to testify before a Paris court on Tuesday about how burglars held her hostage at gunpoint and made off with jewellery worth about €9mn in one of the most spectacular robberies in France in decades.
Nine men and one woman stand accused of orchestrating the heist in October 2016 that targeted Kardashian while she was staying in a private luxury residence during Paris Fashion Week.
One of the defendants has admitted wrongdoing in a book titled I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, while the others maintain their innocence.
The group has been dubbed the papys braqueurs (grandpa robbers) by the French media, and the defendant who wrote the book said they were not aware of just how famous Kardashian was, so they underestimated the ensuing media frenzy. The attention made it harder for them to sell the booty, according to police.
Several of the defendants are in their 60s and 70s and have colourful nicknames like Old Omar and Blue Eyes that prosecutors allege were earned over long criminal careers.
Then married to rapper Kanye West, Kardashian later admitted she had been “showing off” a 20-carat diamond ring from her husband during fashion week, making her a target.
“I brought all of my jewels, everything I had to Paris with me,” the celebrity turned successful entrepreneur told the E! TV channel in 2019.
“They wanted my ring and my jewellery so I didn’t fight back, I just gave them everything. They tied me up, they wrapped duct tape on my eyes and mouth. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through in my entire life, thinking you are about to die.”
Masked men disguised as police burst into her room around 2am and yelled at her to give them the ring. Kardashian was without security protection that night because her bodyguard had gone out to a nightclub with her two sisters. The assailants were caught on surveillance cameras escaping on bicycles.
Multiple pieces of jewellery were stolen and only one recovered — a diamond-encrusted cross that one of the alleged robbers dropped while fleeing the scene.
Kardashian, now 44, was not injured during the robbery, but has said it had a lasting impact on her life. “She wishes to attend the trial in person and confront those who attacked her,” Kardashian’s lawyers told AFP last week.
The trial began in late April and is expected to last a month. To date, police investigators have recounted how they initially identified one of the suspects after finding his DNA on the duct tape used to restrain Kardashian, and then tracked down the others.
