Berliner Boersenzeitung - 'I thought I was going to die,' Kardashian tells in Paris robbery trial

EUR -
AED 4.324438
AFN 82.328185
ALL 97.949419
AMD 453.271707
ANG 2.107025
AOA 1079.636914
ARS 1449.927532
AUD 1.795358
AWG 2.122186
AZN 1.990127
BAM 1.954815
BBD 2.380071
BDT 144.607168
BGN 1.955302
BHD 0.443822
BIF 3511.586629
BMD 1.177357
BND 1.500925
BOB 8.145897
BRL 6.365024
BSD 1.178791
BTN 100.508378
BWP 15.572091
BYN 3.857757
BYR 23076.197533
BZD 2.367907
CAD 1.60034
CDF 3396.675125
CHF 0.934236
CLF 0.02847
CLP 1093.644109
CNY 8.436237
CNH 8.434891
COP 4697.183555
CRC 595.092696
CUC 1.177357
CUP 31.199961
CVE 110.209492
CZK 24.624403
DJF 209.911602
DKK 7.461312
DOP 70.463613
DZD 152.811006
EGP 58.09939
ERN 17.660355
ETB 162.604613
FJD 2.634572
FKP 0.862382
GBP 0.862196
GEL 3.202678
GGP 0.862382
GHS 12.200855
GIP 0.862382
GMD 84.181539
GNF 10220.808822
GTQ 9.063435
GYD 246.625785
HKD 9.242194
HNL 30.798357
HRK 7.534265
HTG 154.780072
HUF 398.487987
IDR 19055.287849
ILS 3.930624
IMP 0.862382
INR 100.608101
IQD 1544.202579
IRR 49596.16423
ISK 142.389078
JEP 0.862382
JMD 188.32435
JOD 0.834746
JPY 169.961488
KES 152.345617
KGS 102.959991
KHR 4731.556641
KMF 492.135408
KPW 1059.578096
KRW 1605.597618
KWD 0.359353
KYD 0.982393
KZT 612.503705
LAK 25399.88359
LBP 105621.403141
LKR 353.647378
LRD 236.35096
LSL 20.645002
LTL 3.476429
LVL 0.712172
LYD 6.347722
MAD 10.576473
MDL 19.851002
MGA 5177.370399
MKD 61.514133
MMK 2472.040219
MNT 4224.807876
MOP 9.5308
MRU 46.751453
MUR 52.922057
MVR 18.128529
MWK 2044.161764
MXN 21.964892
MYR 4.973745
MZN 75.303303
NAD 20.644739
NGN 1800.6381
NIO 43.377968
NOK 11.869454
NPR 160.810958
NZD 1.941497
OMR 0.452699
PAB 1.178806
PEN 4.198286
PGK 4.866528
PHP 66.42671
PKR 334.519655
PLN 4.249107
PYG 9398.14683
QAR 4.295936
RON 5.059923
RSD 117.183551
RUB 92.839359
RWF 1693.339948
SAR 4.415489
SBD 9.815536
SCR 17.271949
SDG 706.982177
SEK 11.24715
SGD 1.499715
SHP 0.925218
SLE 26.431679
SLL 24688.592283
SOS 673.657847
SRD 43.779986
STD 24368.913178
SVC 10.314674
SYP 15308.030561
SZL 20.654334
THB 38.075993
TJS 11.428398
TMT 4.132523
TND 3.429373
TOP 2.757486
TRY 46.920697
TTD 7.986876
TWD 34.069761
TZS 3114.646199
UAH 49.220701
UGX 4228.870104
USD 1.177357
UYU 47.226214
UZS 14843.523969
VES 128.889394
VND 30817.908599
VUV 140.260432
WST 3.06316
XAF 655.624007
XAG 0.031985
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.181866
XDR 0.815386
XOF 655.618441
XPF 119.331742
YER 285.096832
ZAR 20.707824
ZMK 10597.623008
ZMW 28.438677
ZWL 379.108479
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

'I thought I was going to die,' Kardashian tells in Paris robbery trial
'I thought I was going to die,' Kardashian tells in Paris robbery trial / Photo: Alain JOCARD - AFP

'I thought I was going to die,' Kardashian tells in Paris robbery trial

American celebrity Kim Kardashian told a Paris court on Tuesday she feared she was going to be killed by masked men who robbed her at gunpoint of millions of dollars of jewellery during the French capital's fashion week.

Text size:

Ten suspects have been on trial since late April over the armed robbery in 2016, which saw jewellery worth some $10 million stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.

"Hi! I'm Kim Kardashian and I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for allowing me to testify today and tell my truth," she told the packed court as she began giving evidence, wearing a black suit.

The trial has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and crowds flocking around the courthouse on Paris's historic Ile de la Cite early Tuesday with fans hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity.

"I came to Paris for Fashion Week and Paris is always a place I love so much," Kardashian said as she gave the court her account of the night of October 2-3, 2016, when she was robbed while staying at an exclusive, discreet hotel in central Paris.

She was in her hotel room -- "with my best friend downstairs, my sister and my friend and my mom, they were all out for the night" -- when she heard "stomping" up the stairs and people "who I assumed were police officers because they were in uniform" entered her room.

"Then I heard one of the gentlemen say 'ring' a few times over, 'ring', 'ring' and he pointed his finger with an accent," she said, adding she didn't at first "understand it was for my jewellery".

- 'I said a prayer for my family' -

The man then found what he was looking for, a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, and valued at 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million).

The attackers then began to look for more valuables, threatened Kardashian with a gun and tied her up with a zip tie, she said, visibly emotional.

"I was certain that he was going to shoot me so I said a prayer for my family," she said, adding she prayed "that they will have an OK life after seeing what they saw".

She added: "I thought I was going to die."

She also feared that she would be raped but the man with the gun "closed my legs and put a tape on my leg".

In the robbery, dubbed by the French press as the "heist of the century", the masked men walked away with millions of dollars' worth of jewels.

Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records.

They have underworld nicknames like "Old Omar" and "Blue Eyes" that resemble those of old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s films noirs.

- 'Crying hysterically' -

Sixty-eight-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, known as "Old Omar", has admitted to tying up Kardashian but denies being the mastermind behind the robbery.

Another suspect in the dock, 71-year-old Yunice Abbas, later wrote a book about the heist.

In it he describes how his bag became caught in the wheel of his escape vehicle, a bicycle, causing him to fall off and have to scramble to shove the loot back in the bag.

Investigators said a man called Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian's driver in Paris, tipped the suspects off that Kardashian was "in French territory".

This allegation has been ridiculed by Madar's lawyer, who remarked that 350 million online followers were already aware of the star's whereabouts.

The night of the robbery could have gone very differently had Kardashian joined her sister Kourtney and gone clubbing, an idea she entertained before deciding to stay in the hotel, the court heard last week.

Her designated driver, Michael Madar -- whose company was billing the Kardashian/West couple up to 400,000 euros per year to provide security -- had been working non-stop for 21 hours and asked a colleague to replace him for the trip to the night club.

The replacement, Mohammed Q., and a Kardashian bodyguard, Pascal D., rushed back to the hotel after Kardashian tried to call them and then failed to pick up her phone when they called back.

When Pascal D. found her, Kardashian "was in a terrible state. She was crying hysterically", he told the court.

The US celebrity, sometimes described as being "famous for being famous", became well known in the early 2000s through TV reality shows, before launching fashion brands and appearing in a number of films.

She is among the world's most followed people on Instagram and X.

She has been named among the 100 most influential people by Time magazine, and among the most powerful women by Fortune magazine.

The trial is set to end on May 23.

mdh-alv-edy-jh/sjw/giv

(H.Schneide--BBZ)