A Paris court has declared the ringleader and seven accomplices responsible for the robbery of billionaire reality TV star Kim Kardashian guilty. The gang tied her up during the incident.
Due to his illness affecting speech and hearing, Aomar Ait Khedache, the ringleader at 69 years old, relied on a screen to read the judge’s verdict, having followed the entire trial. He has been handed an eight-year prison sentence, with five years being suspended.
The other seven defendants were also convicted of various offenses such as organized gang robbery, kidnapping, possession of weapons, aiding an armed group, theft, and involvement in planning criminal activities.
Most of them also received prison sentences, portions of which were suspended, but all will walk free due to time already served.
A jury at the Paris Assizes handed down their verdicts on Friday evening after 11 hours of deliberation, before one was told he would spend just three years in a cell.
Two of the defendants – both considered informants who allegedly passed on Ms Kardashian’s movement to the gang during Paris Fashion Week – were acquitted.
‘The sentences are quite lenient; they were thought of a long way away from this serious event, which impacted the civil parties. You have caused harm, even if you did not strike, if blood has not been shed, you have caused fear,’ said the presiding judge David De Pas as he handed down the verdict.
Ms Kardashian, 44, who was not in court today, lost $10million-worth of jewellery in the October 2016 raid, including a $4million engagement ring from her ex-husband, the rapper Kanye West, that has never been recovered.
In a statement released after the trial, Kardashian said she was ‘deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.’
‘The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family. While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system,’ Kardashian said.
Her legal team said, ‘Kim appreciates the court’s decision and once again thanks the French authorities for treating her with great respect throughout the process. It has been a long journey from that terrible night back in 2016 to her standing courageously in a historic Paris courtroom to confront these criminals.
‘She looks forward to putting this tragic episode behind her, as she continues working to improve the criminal justice system on behalf of victims, the innocent, and the incarcerated seeking to redeem themselves.’
Prosecutor General Anne-Dominique Merville earlier told the court that Khedache – who has multiple convictions for drugs running and robbery – should spend the next 10 years in prison.
She said he was ‘now of a certain age and showed no risk of reoffending’ but should ‘pay for his crimes.’
Khedache begged for forgiveness on Friday, just before the jury in Paris retired to consider their verdict.
‘I can’t find the words to say how sorry I am,’ he told the court. Khedache is now almost mute and partially deaf following years of ill health.
‘I offer a thousand apologies,’ he scribbled on a piece of paper, before his claims were displayed on a screen inside the historic Voltaire Chamber of the court.
During an emotional testimony to the court last week, Ms Kardashian said she had feared she would not survive the raid.
Trial judge David De Pas asked her directly during court questioning: ‘Did you think you were going to die, Madam?’
She replied: ‘Absolutely, I was certain I was going to die.’
Khedache initially denied being the mastermind of the heist, saying there was a mysterious ‘X or Ben’ who was ultimately responsible.
But Ms Merville said there was ample proof that Khedache ‘gave the orders’, and then went to Antwerp, Belgium, to try and sell the swag.
Khedache said the stolen gold was melted down and sold, along with the diamonds, but he had ‘no idea’ where it all ended up.
Mrs Merville said he was ‘now of a certain age and showed no risk of reoffending’ but should ‘pay for his crimes.’
She said Khedache, who admitted taking part in the heist after his DNA was found at the scene, ‘now downplays the violence involved.’
A 10-year prison sentence was also initially requested for Yunice Abbas, 72, and the only other defendant to plead guilty.
The lawyer for Abbas, who was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison, with five suspended, also welcomed the verdict.
‘It’s a very fair decision, it’s a very just decision. (Abbas) is very happy to be back with his family tonight. We’re very happy with this decision,’ said the lawyer Gabriel Dumenil.
While on remand, Abbas wrote a book called ‘I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian,’ which became a gift to prosecutors.
During his own words to the court on Friday, Abbas said: ‘Once again, I have nothing but regrets to offer you; I’m sorry for what I did.’
The same sentence was requested for Didier Dubreucq, 69, who was allegedly the second robber to enter the Kardashian’s penthouse, along with Khedache, who is also known as ‘Old Omar’.
Marc Alexander Boyer, 36 and the youngest member of the gang, was sentenced to seven years in prison, with five suspended, after it was proved he entered the Kardashian apartment.
Lesser sentences were requested for other members of the gang who, like Dubreucq, had all denied any wrongdoing.
All of them were allowed to address the court for the last time today, before the jury retired.
Most of the key defendants are in their 60s and 70s, meaning they have been dubbed the ‘Grandpa Robbers’.
There is one woman defendant – Cathy Glotin, 78, who was once Khedache’s mistress.
She continually pleaded her innocence, saying on Friday: ‘I had nothing to do with this case, and look forward to being reunited with my family.’
But the veteran criminal is said to have provided ‘secretarial services’ to the gang, including providing burner phones.
Glotin also travelled to Antwerp – the diamond capital of Europe – with Aït Khedache to sell the swag, the prosecution claimed.
Francis Delaporte, 69 and another gang member, got a three year suspended sentence, while Marc Boyer, 62, was fined the equivalent of around £4500 for supplying the vintage Mauser pistol used in the raid.
Florus Héroui, 52, and Gary Madar, 34, were both acquitted after prosecutors failed to convince the jury that they had handed out information about Ms Kardashian’s movements in Paris.
Prosecutors could have asked for sentences of up to 30 years, but the defendants’ ages and poor health are the reasons for relatively low ones requested.
The vast majority of defendants were imprisoned in January 2017, three months after the robbery.
But then they were released on bail, meaning they were all free when the trial started in April.
Last week a sobbing Ms Kardashian told the Paris court she forgave the defendant.
The social media star said: ‘I just want to be heard and understood. I appreciate the letter, those words. I forgive you. But it doesn’t change the emotion and the feelings, the trauma, and my life being changed forever,’ after the judge read aloud an apology note written to Kardashian in 2017 by Khedache.
‘I came to Paris for fashion week, Paris was always a place that I loved so much. I used to walk around the city when I woke up in the middle of the night. I always felt very safe.’ Kardashian told the court on May 13.
‘It was around three in the morning. I heard stomping up the stairs when I was in bed. I kept calling out for my sister and one of my best friends, but no one answered me. And in my bedroom come in a few police officers, or what I assumed were police officers as they were in police uniforms,’ she said, recalling the night of the robbery.
She told the court that the attackers arrived dressed as police officers, with the concierge in handcuffs.
Kardashian described how they tied her hands with cable ties, dragged her to the bathtub and pointed a gun at her temple.
One robber gestured toward her ring. ‘Then I heard one of the gentlemen forcefully say ‘Ring! Ring!’ in English, with an accent, pointing’.
The suspects were accused of tying up Kardashian with zip ties and duct tape before making off with jewellery, including a $4million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye), according to investigators.
‘And I was still in such shock, because honestly a lot of terrorist attacks were happening in the world, and I thought it was some sort of terrorist attack, and I didn’t immediately understand it was for my jewellery.
‘They pulled me back in the room once they realised they had everything, and they threw me on the bed.
‘I was pretty hysterical and I just looked at the concierge and told him what is going to happen to us, I have to make it home to my babies,’ Kardashian said.
She said at one point she feared she was going to be raped as the robbers threw her on the bed and one of them grabbed her leg. ‘But he ended up tying me up and closed my legs,’ she added.
‘I thought about my sister, thought she would walk in and see me shot dead and have that memory in her forever.
‘I absolutely thought I was going to die.
‘After a few minutes, I didn’t hear anything, so I (moved over) to the sink, and it was a marble sink so I cut my ties.
‘When I got downstairs, Simone (her stylist) let me know that she had called my sister Kourtney, and her and the security were on the way. We weren’t sure at that point if they were going to come back. So we ran on the balcony to hide in the bushes.
‘I remember calling my mom from the bushes to let her know what happened. And then I think while we were waiting for my security, we were trying to come up with a plan, if we should jump from the window, as it was just a one-storey building.’
Kardashian, who once shared nearly every moment of her life online, later acknowledged the role that visibility played.
‘People were watching,’ she said in a 2021 interview. ‘They knew what I had. They knew where I was.’
‘Now I have between four and six security (personnel) at home for me to feel safe. I think there are people who hear these stories and then they want to copycat. My house in Los Angeles was robbed just after what happened in Paris.
‘I can’t sleep at night if there aren’t multiple security people.’
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
