One of many suspects in the armed theft of actuality TV star Kim Kardashian mentioned he regrets the “trauma” he brought on her almost 9 years after Kardashian was sure, gagged and robbed at gunpoint throughout Paris Style Week in October 2016.
The theft was thought-about 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 probably the most critical crimes.
Defendant Yunice Abbas mentioned 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, instructed 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 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 guide, titled I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, which got here up throughout the testimony.
He claimed that he was not chargeable for the title of the guide and he mentioned he was not concerned in tying up Kardashian throughout the theft, in keeping with NBC Information.
Abbas mentioned he acted as a lookout on the reception space on the bottom flooring, guaranteeing the escape route was clear. He mentioned 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 below judicial supervision. Abbas and 9 others, known as the “grandpa robbers” in native media because of their ages, are alleged to have performed totally different roles within the heist.
In line with Abbas, minutes after the raid began, his accomplices got here down from Kardashian’s house 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 mentioned 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 mentioned.
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 identification on the time of the theft.
“I used to be instructed a few well-known particular person, a rapper’s spouse. That’s all the data I had,” he mentioned. “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 felony previous, together with an armed theft of a financial institution in Belgium. He mentioned that when he was youthful, he was against theft however later turned to a lifetime of crime as a result of unhealthy influences of buddies and cash difficulties.
He mentioned he “by no means had a task mannequin” and had accomplished what he believed he wanted to do in an effort to present for his youngsters.
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Within the years following the theft, Abbas mentioned he now felt “very uneasy” about what befell that day, including, “I can’t do something apart from apologize.”
In her account to investigators, Kardashian described two males forcing their method into her bed room at a non-public house complicated in Paris and pointing a gun in the direction of her, asking for her ring. She mentioned she was tied up with plastic cables and tape whereas the intruders had been on the lookout for jewels, together with her engagement ring price hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
Twelve folks had been initially anticipated within the defendants’ field. One has died and one other is severely sick and might’t be tried. In line with the investigation, 5 of the ten defendants had been current on the scene of the theft.
Others anticipated to face trial embody 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 anticipated to face trial as an confederate within the heist.
This courtroom 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) throughout 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 Photos
The brother of Kardashian’s driver in Paris, Gary Madar, 35, can also be anticipated to face trial. He’s accused of tipping the others off to Kardashian’s location.
Defendant Gary Madar throughout 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 Photos
Kardashian, 44, is anticipated to testify in particular person on the trial, scheduled to run by means of Might 23. Her legal professionals mentioned she is going to testify in particular person and is anticipated to talk on Might 13.
“Ms. Kardashian is reserving her testimony for the courtroom and jury and doesn’t want to elaborate additional right now,” they mentioned. “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 mentioned 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 entire 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 feel occurred now after excited about it a lot is that there was in all probability a bunch of fellows that had been following us your entire journey. I used to be Snapchatting that I used to be residence and everybody was going out.
“That they had this window of alternative and simply went for it,” she mentioned.
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 “howdy” 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 occurring?’” she mentioned. “I knew one thing wasn’t fairly proper.”
She instructed 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 toes away. So I slid off my mattress and picked up my telephone, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know find out how to name 911 in a special 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 mentioned, ‘The place’s the rapper’s spouse? Allow us to as much as her room,’” she mentioned.
“He grabbed my legs — I had no garments on below there — and he pulled me in the direction of him on the entrance of the mattress and I believed, ‘OK, that is the second he’s going to rape me,’” the Skims founder mentioned throughout her interview.
“I absolutely mentally prepped myself and he didn’t. He duct taped my legs collectively after which that they had 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 mentioned 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
