Kim Kardashian testified Tuesday in Paris, France in the highest profile robbery trial the country has seen in decades … and her account of the heist that captured $10 million worth of her jewelry was emotional.
Kardashian took the stand Tuesday and tearfully told the court … “I absolutely thought I was going to die.” She described how two men dressed in police uniforms and wearing masks held her at gunpoint … as she wore nothing but a bathrobe, fearing she’d be raped.
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The two robbers had overpowered a concierge outside her hotel apartment. They tied Kim up and left her in her bathroom during a Paris Fashion Week visit in October 2016 … then absconded with millions of dollars of loot, including a $4-million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband Kanye West.
Kim testified she heard “stomping” outside her room at about 3 AM, and when she opened her door, she saw the concierge handcuffed by the two robbers. One of them pointed a gun at her. Kim said she was thinking about her children, and was mortally afraid she was about to be raped and killed.
Kardashian said … “I kept telling them I have babies and I need to get home to my babies.” She said one of the robbers pointed to his hand and kept repeating the word, “ring.”
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One of the men bound her hands and mouth with duct tape, and her ankles with zip-ties. Kim, who was wearing nothing but a bathrobe when the robbers entered her room, revealed … “He grabs by legs and pulls me. I’m naked and my everything is exposed.”
Kim testified … “I was sure that I was going to be raped.” But the men took her possessions and left.
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She said she couldn’t remember individual features and faces, due to the trauma of the event. She said, “You start thinking about your family and it all goes out the door.”
In the bathroom, Kardashian said, she managed to remove the duct tape, and scooted out to look for her childhood friend and stylist Simone Harouche, who accompanied her on the trip and was staying one floor below. Harouche helped her remove the remaining zip-ties around her ankles with scissors.
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The two then fled outside the Hôtel de Pourtalès and hid in bushes, and she called her mother, Kris Jenner, who has accompanied Kim on this current trip. Police eventually arrived … but Kim said she was confused and suspicious, because the robbers had also been dressed in cop uniforms.
“I didn’t know who to trust,” Kim said today.
Kim testified a French official later told her she’d been targeted by the same robbery ring during a previous visit to Paris … but the gang opted out because Kanye was traveling with her at the time. She said … “That shocked me to find out they’d been trying to plan the attack for some time,” adding she thought the actual heist had been “well planned out.”
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The 69-year-old alleged ringleader, “Old Omar,” who is deaf and mute, issued a written statement in court, read out loud today by the judge … asking for Kim’s forgiveness.
“I do appreciate the letter, I forgive you for what has taken place, but it doesn’t change the emotion and the feelings and the trauma the way my life is forever changed,” she said.
Kim discussed how she had always felt safe in the city — prior to the robbery. The trauma has followed her home, as even now in California she keeps 4 to 6 security guards at her house just to feel safe.
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Only one item of the stolen jewelry has ever been recovered — a $24,000 diamond necklace a woman found on the street later on the day of the robbery. The necklace had been dropped by one of the robbers fleeing on a bicycle. The woman wore the necklace to work that day, before learning of the heist and turning it over to police.
Nine men and one women — dubbed the “Grandpa Robbers” as most are in their 60s and 70s now — are on trial, which began 2 weeks ago … nearly 10 years after the heist occurred. Many of the suspects were apprehended about 3 months after the robbery.
The court took a break Tuesday around 4 PM local time … and after about 30 minutes, Kim resumed her testimony.
Abderrahmane Ouatiki, the handcuffed concierge, had translated between the French-speaking robbers and Kim during the robbery … Kim was asked today about what she told investigators in the past that suggested Ouatiki was working with the suspects. She replied that at the time, his “lack of hysteria” in the moment raised her suspicions, but now she understands why he acted the way he did during the stress.
She accused one of the defendants of profiting off her trauma after the robbery, compounding her ordeal — Yunice Abbas, 71, published a book titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian” in 2021, in which he describes his part in the robbery. “It wasn’t just jewelry, someone took away my memories,” Kim said today. “Now he is capitalizing by writing a book? It didn’t seem fair to me.”
Marc Boyer, a 78-year-old defendant accused of supplying the lone gun used in the robbery, was also present in court Tuesday … he’s admitted to being one of the lookouts on the street during the robbery.
Kim also talked about how she’s ceased posting life updates on social media in real time, as it’s come out the robbery ring may have been tracking her movements through Snapchat and other platforms in 2016.
She mentioned the watch her father Robert Kardashian had given her for her high school graduation that was taken among the haul.
She also discussed claims she had concocted the robbery herself to boost ratings of her reality TV show, describing it as “really hurtful.”
Unlike the U.S., testimony in French court is given while standing at a lectern … Kim had been standing for about 5 hours during today’s hearing. A judge called an end to today’s proceedings shortly around 6:30 PM local time.
