One of many suspects in the armed theft of actuality TV star Kim Kardashian stated he regrets the “trauma” he brought on her almost 9 years after Kardashian was certain, gagged and robbed at gunpoint throughout Paris Vogue Week in October 2016.
The theft was thought of the largest heist focusing 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 critical crimes.
Defendant Yunice Abbas stated this was the primary time he really acknowledged the “trauma” he brought on 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 price of bijou was stolen.
“I remorse it, not as a result of I received caught, however as a result of … there was a trauma,” Abbas, 72, informed the jury.
Defendant Yunice Abbas arrives for the beginning of the trial for the 2016 theft and kidnapping of U.S. movie star Kim Kardashian on the Assize Courtroom of Paris, on April 28, 2025.
MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP through Getty Pictures
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 flooring, making certain the escape route was clear. He stated he was unarmed and didn’t personally threaten Kardashian, however acknowledged he shared duty for the crime.
He was arrested in January 2017 and spent 21 months in jail earlier than being launched underneath judicial supervision. Abbas and 9 others, known as the “grandpa robbers” in native media on account of their ages, are alleged to have performed completely different roles within the heist.
Based on Abbas, minutes after the raid began, his accomplices got here down from Kardashian’s condominium and gave him a bag of bijou.
As he was fleeing the scene on a bicycle, he noticed a police automotive, 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 informed a few well-known particular person, a rapper’s spouse. That’s all the data I had,” he stated. “Till the subsequent morning, once I heard on TV concerning the influencer. That’s once I understood who she was.”
Throughout questioning on Tuesday, Abbas spoke about his legal 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 as a result of unhealthy influences of associates and cash difficulties.
He stated he “by no means had a task mannequin” and had executed what he believed he wanted to do as a way to present for his kids.
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Within the years following the theft, Abbas stated he now felt “very uneasy” about what happened that day, including, “I can’t do something apart from apologize.”
In her account to investigators, Kardashian described two males forcing their approach into her bed room at a personal condominium complicated in Paris and pointing a gun in the direction of her, asking for her ring. She stated she was tied up with plastic cables and tape whereas the intruders had been in search of jewels, together with her engagement ring price thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
Twelve folks had been initially anticipated within the defendants’ field. One has died and one other is critically in poor health and may’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 getting into the flat; and Christiane Glotin, 78, who is anticipated 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. movie star Kim Kardashian on the Assize Courtroom of Paris, on April 28, 2025.
BENOIT PEYRUCQ/AFP through Getty Pictures
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. movie star Kim Kardashian on the Assize Courtroom of Paris, on April 28, 2025.
MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP through Getty Pictures
Kardashian, 44, is anticipated to testify in particular person on the trial, scheduled to run by way of Might 23. Her legal professionals stated she is going to testify in particular person and is anticipated to talk on Might 13.
“Ms. Kardashian is reserving her testimony for the court docket and jury and doesn’t want to elaborate additional presently,” 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 Protecting 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 evening, 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 most likely a gaggle 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.
“They’d 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 “good day” 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 type of like knots up, and also you’re like, ‘OK, what’s happening?’” she stated. “I knew one thing wasn’t fairly proper.”
She informed 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 cellphone, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know learn how to name 911 in a unique nation.’ So I known as Pascal after which the man got here in, grabbed the cellphone 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 underneath there — and he pulled me in the 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 totally 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 desires the trial “to proceed in an orderly style in accordance with French legislation and with respect for all events to the case.”
— With information from The Related Press
