Billionaire entrepreneur and actuality tv star Kim Kardashian testified in a packed Paris courthouse on Tuesday within the trial of the suspects accused of robbing her at gunpoint, taping her mouth, binding her fingers and stealing tens of millions of {dollars}’ value of knickknack 9 years in the past.
Kardashian, 44, instructed the jury she thought she was going to be sexually assaulted throughout the 2016 heist and that she was certain she wouldn’t survive the ordeal.
“I used to be sure that was the second that he was going to rape me,” she instructed a Paris courtroom Tuesday. “I completely did assume I used to be going to die.”
Kim Kardashian arrives on the Palais de Justice on Might 13, 2025, in Paris, France.
Edward Berthelot / Getty Photos
Kim Kardashian recollects the incident
Kardashian, who was tearful at occasions, stated she was preparing for mattress when she heard loud footsteps ascending the steps to her resort room, telling the courtroom that at the beginning she thought it was her sister Kourtney and a pal coming back from a Paris Style Week occasion within the early hours of Oct. 3.
She recalled calling out to ask who was there earlier than masked males entered the room.
“I clearly was very confused. I needed to make sense of what was taking place. I used to be nearly to go to sleep, bare with a gown on,” she instructed the courtroom.
“Actually, a variety of terrorist assaults had been taking place on the planet, and I believed it was some type of terrorist assault, and I didn’t instantly perceive it was for my jewellery.”
She stated the suspects arrived at her resort dressed as law enforcement officials and held the concierge hostage. He was dragged into her room, handcuffed, in response to Kardashian.
One attacker started gesturing at her diamond ring.
“He stated, ‘Ring! Ring!’ and he pointed to his hand,” she recalled.
Kardashian grabbed her cellphone to name the police, however didn’t know the French emergency quantity. She then tried to contact her sister and bodyguard, however was stopped by one of many masked assailants.
Kim Kardashian arrives on the Palais de Justice on Might 13, 2025, in Paris, France.
Edward Berthelot / Getty Photos
The boys then threw her on the mattress, zip-tied her fingers and held a gun to her head, she testified.
“I’ve infants,” Kardashian stated. “I’ve to make it residence. They will take every thing. I simply must make it residence.”
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At that second, Kardashian stated she remembers worrying about what her sister Kourtney might need come residence to.
“I considered my sister, thought she would stroll in and see me shot useless and have that reminiscence in her eternally,” Kardashian stated.
The boys then dragged her to the lavatory, she stated, the place they taped her mouth and instructed her she wouldn’t be harmed so long as she didn’t make any noise.
She recalled being dealt with aggressively by the suspects, however stated they didn’t hit her.
“I used to be not hit. No, I used to be grabbed, and dragged into the opposite room, and thrown onto the ground, however wasn’t hit, no,” she instructed the courtroom.
“[The gun] was pointed in the direction of me to get me to go from room to room, and it was pointed towards me on the mattress on the finish.”
The final time Kardashian noticed the lads who police say robbed her, she was locked within the toilet whereas the suspects stole greater than US$6 million in jewellery.
Her testimony marked a long-awaited second in a trial that has captivated France and the broader world for nearly a decade, and reignited discussions in regards to the worth of fame in addition to the dangers of dwelling within the public eye.
Kardashian is among the most recognizable figures on the planet, a billionaire vogue and wonder model entrepreneur, a actuality tv icon, a producer and a lawyer within the making, with a following of greater than 350 million on Instagram alone.
However the theft make clear the darkish sides of extreme publicity, and the way fame can depart high-profile figures susceptible to assaults just like the one she survived.
Police consider the suspects watched Kardashian’s social media profiles to construct a broader image of her actions and used photographs she’d shared with time stamps and geotags to trace her whereabouts within the lead-up to the incident.
Kardashian was joined by her mom, Kris Jenner, within the closely guarded Parisian courtroom. Wearing black with $1.5 million value of diamonds draped round her neck — in response to a press launch her group despatched to journalists on the trial, stories The Related Press — her voice quivered as she thanked the French authorities for permitting her to “communicate my reality.”
This courtroom sketch made on Might 13, 2025, in Paris exhibits U.S. superstar Kim Kardashian (R2), subsequent to co-accused Aomar Ait Khedache (R), testifying earlier than the Assize Courtroom for the trial over the 2016 theft that noticed her robbed of tens of millions of {dollars}’ value of knickknack at gunpoint.
BENOIT PEYRUCQ / Getty Photos
The accused and the aftermath
French prosecutors say the 12 suspects, who’re between the ages of 60 and 70, had been members of an old-school prison ring.
Two assailants have admitted to being on the scene of the crime, and one claims he didn’t know who Kardashian was when the crime passed off; one other died earlier than the trial, and a fourth was excused because of sickness.
The group of criminals was dubbed “les papys braqueurs” — “the grandpa robbers” — by the French press, however Kardashian’s attorneys insist the lads are removed from a healthful gaggle of senior residents.
The suspects are dealing with costs of armed theft, kidnapping and membership in a prison gang, crimes in France that carry the opportunity of life in jail.
After the lads left the scene, Kardashian stated she rubbed the tape binding her wrists towards the lavatory sink to free her fingers.
Her ankles nonetheless tied, she hopped downstairs to seek out her pal and stylist, Simone Harouche, who was staying within the room beneath.
Fearing the robbers might come again, Harouche and Kardashian fled to the balcony and hid within the bushes. Whereas there, Kardashian phoned her mom.
Earlier within the trial, Harouche recalled listening to Kardashian scream from upstairs: “‘I have to reside.’ That’s what she stored on saying, ‘Take every thing. I have to reside’.”
In the meantime, Harouche locked herself in a rest room and texted Kardashian’s sister and bodyguard, writing, “One thing could be very unsuitable.”
Later, she heard Kardashian struggling down the steps, her ankles nonetheless certain.
“She was beside herself,” Harouche stated. “She simply was screaming.”
Decide David De Pas requested Harouche whether or not she thought Kardashian invited the robbers by sharing photographs of herself on the web adorned in costly jewels — a line of questioning Harouche strongly rejected.
Kim Kardashian leaves the courthouse after testifying earlier than the Assize Courtroom for the trial over the 2016 theft that noticed her relieved of tens of millions of {dollars} value of knickknack at gunpoint in Paris, on Might 13, 2025.
Alain JOCARD / Getty Photos
“Simply because a lady wears jewellery, that doesn’t make her a goal,” she stated. “That’s like saying that as a result of a lady wears a brief skirt that she deserves to be raped.”
Kardashian instructed the courtroom that shortly after the Paris theft, her Los Angeles residence was damaged into in what she believes was a copycat assault, including that she will be able to now not sleep with out guards and has between 4 and 6 at residence at any given time.
“I began to get this phobia of going out,” Kardashian stated. “This expertise actually modified every thing for us.”
On the time of the Paris theft, her bodyguard was staying in a distinct resort.
“We assumed that if we had been in a resort, it was protected, it was safe,” Kardashian defined, including that Paris, up till then, had all the time felt protected to her and that she would usually stroll the streets alone within the early hours of the morning to window store or cease for a solo sizzling chocolate.
“It all the time felt actually protected,” she stated. “It was all the time a magical place.”
Kardashian acquired an apology letter from one of many suspects, and stated she was grateful for the gesture.
“I do recognize the letter, for certain. I forgive you for what has taken place, nevertheless it doesn’t change the emotions and the trauma and the truth that my life was eternally modified, however I do recognize the letter, thanks,” she concluded.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press and Reuters