Latest news with #HoteldePourtalès
Daily Record
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Kim Kardashian arrives at Paris court with mum Kris Jenner for £12 million burglary trial
Kim and Kris arrived at the Palais de Justice court in Paris for the trial. Kim Kardashian has arrived at a court in Paris ahead of a £12 million burglary trial. She was accompanied by her mother Kris Jenner before the pair walked inside the courtroom having been flanked by paparazzi, police and onlookers. The pair turned up to the Palais de Justice court in Paris, to testify about the robbery ordeal in her hotel room almost nine years ago. Ten people are on trial in Paris, accused of robbing the celebrity. Kim was allegedly held at gunpoint at a Parisian hotel in October 2016 by robbers dressed as policemen. They reportedly stole $10m (£7.5m) in jewellery and cash, and a $4m engagement ring. Kardashian has since spoken about the trauma the incident caused her, and court has heard that she has increased her security detail since the robbery. Two of the defendants, Yunice Abbas and Aomar Ait Khedache, admit the charges. The rest deny them. The five robbers used a night receptionist to gain entry to Kardashian's room. The man on shift, Abderrahmane Ouatiki, was also forced to act as an interpreter between the gang and Kardashian. At a previous day in the trial, the court was told by Ouatiki's lawyers that the receptionist was left scarred by the events of October 2016 and that he suffered from PTSD. "He suffered from the way the heist was romanticised and by the way the robbers are being described as 'grandpa robbers'. That's not what he saw - he just saw robbers," one of his lawyers said. On Monday, Ouatiki said the American star was "completely hysterical" and "in a state of complete terror" as a "very nervous" man pointed a gun at her. "He was very aggressive and she was utterly terrified," said Ouatiki. The robbers are known at the "grandpa robbers", due to the older age of most defendants. Most of the alleged participants in the robbery were born in the 1950s, leading French media to dub them the "grandpa robbers". One has since passed away, and another, aged 81, will be excused as he is suffering from advanced dementia. The burglary took place at the Hotel de Pourtalès, or the No Address hotel, where Kim Kardashian stayed in October 2016. The hotel is comprised of a series of nine luxury suites and two rooms. Its website claims it's "more confidential" than a luxury hotel, and offers an unrivalled privacy. Services include bodyguards on request, chauffeurs, and day and night concierge teams. You must book for a six night minimum, with the cheapest rate coming in at £1,345 per night. But not everybody can book, you must rich, famous or referred by other celebrities. Vanity Fair reported that it had lax external security and no CCTV cameras for guests to enjoy maximum privacy, and a door code known to many as it hadn't been changed in years.
Daily Record
13-05-2025
- Daily Record
Kim Kardashian testifies in court as witness to Paris burglary case
Kim Kardashian's appearance at a Paris court today is expected to cause a media frenzy in the French capital. Kim Kardashian is in Paris to appear in court as a witness to a burglary case which saw her held up at gunpoint with millions of dollars of jewellery stolen. A total of 10 people are currently on trial in the French capital following the 2016 robbery which took place at a luxury suite she was staying at during Paris Fashion Week. The haul which was stolen from the reality star included a a $4m (£2.9m) diamond engagement ring which she had been gifted by then-husband Kanye West. Business woman Kim, 44, was said to have been 'completely hysterical' and in a 'state of complete terror' during the ordeal, according to night receptionist Abderrahmane Ouatik. He appeared as a witness on Monday, where he also stated a 'very nervous' man had pointed a gun at the star as he added: 'He was very aggressive and she was utterly terrified.' According to the BBC, three people were keeping watch in the reception of the exclusive Hotel de Pourtalès in central Paris while two other men forced Ouatiki to take them to the mum of four's room. He said he too had been scared for his life because of the erratic behaviour of the robber, and he added he was irritated by Kardashian's screaming. When the group got to Kim's room, the witness said that they demanded she handed over the ring, as well as other jewels worth up to a total of $9m. The BBC reports three men were arrested around three months later, as were several others who were thought to be accessories to the crime. The robbers have been nicknamed the "Grandpa robbers" because many are in their 70s and have serious health issues. The defence team are reportedly pursuing an argument that the crime was committed by bumbling, elderly burglars who were not aware of the fame of Kim Kardashian or the rest of the family. According to the reports, 12 appeared in court but one died in March and another was excused for health reasons., with one undergoing chemotherapy and another reported to have "visible tremors". Out of the 10 that remain, two are denying involvement in the burglary. The stolen jewellery was never found but police reckon the pieces were broken up and sold on. Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, is the alleged ringleader, the BBC reports, and he has had to write down his answers when questioned on the stand, and these were then projected on to a screen, due to the fact the alleged perpetrator is deaf and mute. The lead investigator of the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme (Banditry Repression Brigade) special unit said last week: "They may have made mistakes but they were still a decent team." He added that Kardashian's feet and ankles were tied up with cable ties and she had tape on her mouth. He also revealed that they had used burner phones and allegedly had a car parked nearby. "That was well done," he said. "They pulled it off, because they managed to flog the goods and palm off a $4m ring in Antwerp, which isn't that easy. it's also reported that Kardashian was taken to a bathroom in the property during the terrifying ordeal, and was wearing a bathrobe and the belt came undone. Kim's lawyer Léonore Hennerick asked witness Ouatiki to go into more detail, but he replied: "You have to respect the victim, I think." Ouatiki also described one of the alleged perpetrators as being "dangerous" as he was "stressed and shouting". He added he was an interpreter between the group and Kardashian as he wanted to "calm things down" and "didn't know what he was capable of". Simone Bretter, Kardashian's friend and stylist who was staying in the same suite but on a different floor to Kardashian, will take the stand on Tuesday morning. She was present during the ordeal but hid when she realised the burglars had entered. it's reported that around 500 journalists are accredited for the trial and Kim's appearance is set to attract huge media attention. Jeetendr Sehdev, celebrity expert and the author of The Kim Kardashian Principle, told the BBC: "Testifying will allow her to reclaim agency in this situation and rewrite the ending. "In 2016 she was the punchline. But in 2025 testifying is going to turn her into the narrator."
Saudi Gazette
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Saudi Gazette
'Grandpa robbers' held Kim Kardashian at gunpoint — but didn't know who she was
PARIS — The morning after the heist, burglar Yunice Abbas went home to catch up on some sleep. When he woke up, his wife was glued to the TV. The headline news of the day was that American reality TV star Kim Kardashian, 35, had been tied up and robbed at gunpoint in a luxury Paris apartment. All her jewelry had been taken for a sum of about $10m (£7.5m) – including the engagement ring her then-husband and rapper Kanye West gifted her, which alone was worth $4m (£3m). Yunice Abbas' wife glared at him. "This has you written all over it," she grumbled. She was right. The 62-year-old had dabbled in crime his whole life, from petty offenses to bank heists. The Kardashian robbery, he later wrote in a memoir, was going to be his last job before retirement. But a series of blunders meant the heist was doomed from the start and in early 2017 — three months after the robbery — Abbas and several of his alleged accomplices were arrested. Ten of them will now be appearing in court in Paris in a trial set to last just under three weeks. Out of those, five are accused of taking part in the heist, and six are accused of being accessories to the crime. Most of them were born in the 1950s, leading French media to dub them the "grandpa robbers". Abbas and a 68-year-old man, Aomar Ait Khedache, have confessed; the others have not. One has since passed away, and another, aged 81, will be excused as he is suffering from advanced dementia. By the time the trial starts, almost nine years will have gone by since the heist. On the night between 2 and 3 October 2016, Abbas and four accomplices allegedly staked out Kardashian's discreet suite in Hotel de Pourtalès, in the glitzy Madeleine neighborhood in Paris, not far from the Opéra and Place Vendome. At around 03:00 local time, they burst into the hotel's entrance hall, dressed as policemen and wielding a gun. They threatened and handcuffed Abderrahmane Ouatiki, an Algerian PhD student who regularly took up shifts as night receptionist, and marched him up to Kardashian's room. She was resting on her bed, tired from days of attending Paris Fashion Week events, when she heard stomping up the stairs. She called out for her sister Kourtney and her stylist Stephanie, but when they didn't answer she panicked. "I knew someone was there to get me," she recalled in an interview with US interviewer David Letterman years later. "You just feel it." Kim dialed 911 but the number, of course, didn't work outside of the US. As she was calling her then-security guard Pascal Duvier — who had accompanied her sister to a club — the men burst in, pushed her on the bed and started shouting. "They kept on saying: the ring, the ring! And I was so startled that it didn't compute for a minute," she told Letterman. The language barrier meant Ouatiki had to act as an interpreter. They grabbed the ring and several other jewels, as well as 1000 euros in cash. One of the men grabbed her and pulled her toward him. Because she was wearing a robe with nothing underneath, she thought he was going to assault her, Kim later told Letterman, wiping tears away. But instead – using the technique of saucissonnage, or the practice of tying them up like a saucisson, a salami — the man bound her with zip ties and duct tape, and left her in the bathroom. Then, he and the rest of the burglars fled on bikes and on foot. Kim freed herself of her restraints, and shortly after her security guard turned up. Traumatized, Kim gave a statement to French police in the early hours of the morning and flew back to the US by dawn. It wasn't until the next morning, when Abbas caught a glimpse of the TV screen his wife was watching, that he understood who their victim was. "There were breaking news alerts saying Kim Kardashian had been robbed at gunpoint – that's how important it was," says LA-based entertainment journalist KJ Matthews. "We were so fascinated with her and her family and their rise to fame... When the heist happened we were so surprised. How could burglars have gotten so close to her?" Matthews says. But while mistakes were made in terms of Kardashian's security, serious errors were made on the burglars' side, too. "They didn't take into account the progress made by police techniques, which can now find micro traces of DNA anywhere," said Patricia Tourancheau, a crime reporter and the author of "Kim and the grandpa robbers" — a thorough account of the heist and of the lives of its perpetrators. "When they dressed up as police they thought 'that's it, nobody will be able to recognize us'," she adds. But in 2016 Paris was still reeling from the terrorist attacks of the previous year, and there were a huge number of CCTV cameras all round the city, meaning police were able to spot the thieves and see them make off with the jewels. Other details of this story suggest that the thieves' planning was rather haphazard. When fleeing the scene on a bike, Abbas fell, dropping a bag of jewels. The next day, a passer-by found a diamond-encrusted necklace and wore it all day at the office before watching the news and realising where it had come from. Police arrested Abbas and several other people in January 2017 and later confirmed that they had been under surveillance for several weeks, after DNA traces left at the scene provided a match with Aomar Ait Khedache, also known as "Omar the Old". French media published a photo from the police stakeout, which shows several of the men having coffee and chatting at a Parisian café that winter, just before their arrest. The question that remains — and which will undoubtedly be explored doing the trial — is just how the gang got wind of Kardashian's schedule. Court documents seen by the BBC show that both Khedache and Abbas stated that all the information they needed was posted online by Kardashian herself, whose very career was built on sharing details about her life and movements. But how did the gang know that on the night of 2 October Kardashian would be alone in her room, without her security guard? Court documents indicate police believe Gary Madar, whose brother Michael's firm had provided transportation and taxis to the Kardashians for years, was an accessory to the heist and that he had fed information to the gang about Kim's whereabouts. Madar was arrested in January 2017. His lawyer Arthur Vercken vehemently pushed back against the accusations, telling the BBC that "since the start the case was built on assumptions, theses, theories — but no proof [of Madar's involvement] was ever found". He added that although the Madar brothers exchanged texts about the Kardashians during Fashion Week it was just because they were "bored" and that when the heist took place Gary was asleep. Gary's brother, Michael, is not a defendant. "Five men did this. You don't think one of them was keeping an eye on who was coming and going from her hotel?" he said, suggesting that Madar had only been arrested "to prove that the French justice system works". The trial will also attempt to determine where the jewels ended up. Police tracking of the gang's phones showed that soon after the heist Omar the Old traveled from Paris to Antwerp in Belgium, where 50% of the world's polished diamonds and 80% of rough diamonds are sold, according to the Diamond Investment Office. Many jewels were reportedly melted or broken up and sold. Abbas got 75,000 euro (£64,000); others far less. As for Kim Kardashian's engagement ring, Omar the Old said the gang was too scared to sell it on as it would be too easily traceable. It has never been found. Kim Kardashian was undoubtedly spooked by the event, which marked the start of her social media hiatus. In an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, she tearfully recalled the night of the heist and said had been scared for her life; later she also said the robbery had made her a "less materialistic person". Soon after the incident her sister Khloe told The Ellen DeGeneres that, for safety reasons, the Kardashian family were making some changes to how freely they posted on social media. "The biggest change was her security detail," KJ Matthews told the BBC. Patricia Tourancheau, the author of the book about the heist, said she was "fascinated" by the "clash between these old-style burglars from the Parisian banlieue and this global social media star". "They fled on bikes and she flies around on private jets," she laughed. "These are a group of elderly down-and-out thieves, they're always broke, they're forever involved in convoluted plans... and they're facing a huge celebrity and they don't even know who she is." The gang was not "elite" as it was suggested in the early days, she added. "This isn't the creme de la creme of French banditry. They're a bit of a bunch of losers, really. They're the same kind of people who in the 60s and 70s would burglar banks or post offices and who then rebranded to drug trafficking and then moved on to jewels because it was easier," she said. Around mid-May, Kim will face the suspects for the first time in years when she takes the stand as a witness. Cameras are not allowed in French courts but her arrival to the tribunal on Ile de la Cité alone will inevitably spark the same media frenzy that has accompanied her for over a decade. In his memoir, Abbas expressed the hope the victim's status and the global resonance of the case would not influence judges unduly. However, he also said that on the last day of the trial he would bring a duffle bag with his belongings, ready to be sent to jail. "The problem with the past," he wrote, "is that it sticks with you as long as you live". — BBC
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Grandpa robbers' held Kim Kardashian at gunpoint - but didn't know who she was
The morning after the heist, burglar Yunice Abbas went home to catch up on some sleep. When he woke up, his wife was glued to the TV. The headline news of the day was that American reality TV star Kim Kardashian, 35, had been tied up and robbed at gunpoint in a luxury Paris apartment. All her jewellery had been taken for a sum of about $10m (£7.5m) – including the engagement ring her then-husband and rapper Kanye West gifted her, which alone was worth $4m (£3m). Yunice Abbas' wife glared at him. "This has you written all over it," she grumbled. She was right. The 62-year-old had dabbled in crime his whole life, from petty offences to bank heists. The Kardashian robbery, he later wrote in a memoir, was going to be his last job before retirement. But a series of blunders meant the heist was doomed from the start and in early 2017 - three months after the robbery - Abbas and several of his alleged accomplices were arrested. Ten of them will now be appearing in court in Paris in a trial set to last just under three weeks. Out of those, five are accused of taking part in the heist, and six are accused of being accessories to the crime. Most of them were born in the 1950s, leading French media to dub them the "grandpa robbers". Abbas and a 68-year-old man, Aomar Ait Khedache, have confessed; the others have not. One has since passed away, and another, aged 81, will be excused as he is suffering from advanced dementia. By the time the trial starts, almost nine years will have gone by since the heist. On the night between 2 and 3 October 2016, Abbas and four accomplices allegedly staked out Kardashian's discreet suite in Hotel de Pourtalès, in the glitzy Madeleine neighbourhood in Paris, not far from the Opéra and Place Vendome. At around 03:00 local time, they burst into the hotel's entrance hall, dressed as policemen and wielding a gun. They threatened and handcuffed Abderrahmane Ouatiki, an Algerian PhD student who regularly took up shifts as night receptionist, and marched him up to Kardashian's room. She was resting on her bed, tired from days of attending Paris Fashion Week events, when she heard stomping up the stairs. She called out for her sister Kourtney and her stylist Stephanie, but when they didn't answer she panicked. "I knew someone was there to get me," she recalled in an interview with US interviewer David Letterman years later. "You just feel it." Kim dialled 911 but the number, of course, didn't work outside of the US. As she was calling her then-security guard Pascal Duvier - who had accompanied her sister to a club - the men burst in, pushed her on the bed and started shouting. "They kept on saying: the ring, the ring! And I was so startled that it didn't compute for a minute," she told Letterman. The language barrier meant Ouatiki had to act as an interpreter. They grabbed the ring and several other jewels, as well as 1000 euros in cash. One of the men grabbed her and pulled her towards him. Because she was wearing a robe with nothing underneath, she thought he was going to assault her, Kim later told Letterman, wiping tears away. But instead – using the technique of saucissonnage, or the practice of tying them up like a saucisson, a salami - the man bound her with zip ties and duct tape, and left her in the bathroom. Then, he and the rest of the burglars fled on bikes and on foot. Kim freed herself of her restraints, and shortly after her security guard turned up. Traumatised, Kim gave a statement to French police in the early hours of the morning and flew back to the US by dawn. It wasn't until the next morning, when Abbas caught a glimpse of the TV screen his wife was watching, that he understood who their victim was. "There were breaking news alerts saying Kim Kardashian had been robbed at gunpoint – that's how important it was," says LA-based entertainment journalist KJ Matthews. "We were so fascinated with her and her family and their rise to fame... When the heist happened we were so surprised. How could burglars have gotten so close to her?" Matthews says. But while mistakes were made in terms of Kardashian's security, serious errors were made on the burglars' side, too. "They didn't take into account the progress made by police techniques, which can now find micro traces of DNA anywhere," said Patricia Tourancheau, a crime reporter and the author of "Kim and the grandpa robbers" - a thorough account of the heist and of the lives of its perpetrators. "When they dressed up as police they thought 'that's it, nobody will be able to recognise us'," she adds. But in 2016 Paris was still reeling from the terrorist attacks of the previous year, and there were a huge number of CCTV cameras all round the city, meaning police were able to spot the thieves and see them make off with the jewels. Other details of this story suggest that the thieves' planning was rather haphazard. When fleeing the scene on a bike, Abbas fell, dropping a bag of jewels. The next day, a passer-by found a diamond-encrusted necklace and wore it all day at the office before watching the news and realising where it had come from. Police arrested Abbas and several other people in January 2017 and later confirmed that they had been under surveillance for several weeks, after DNA traces left at the scene provided a match with Aomar Ait Khedache, also known as "Omar the Old". French media published a photo from the police stakeout, which shows several of the men having coffee and chatting at a Parisian café that winter, just before their arrest. The question that remains - and which will undoubtedly be explored doing the trial - is just how the gang got wind of Kardashian's schedule. Court documents seen by the BBC show that both Khedache and Abbas stated that all the information they needed was posted online by Kardashian herself, whose very career was built on sharing details about her life and movements. But how did the gang know that on the night of 2 October Kardashian would be alone in her room, without her security guard? Court documents indicate police believe Gary Madar, whose brother Michael's firm had provided transportation and taxis to the Kardashians for years, was an accessory to the heist and that he had fed information to the gang about Kim's whereabouts. Mr Madar was arrested in January 2017. His lawyer Arthur Vercken vehemently pushed back against the accusations, telling the BBC that "since the start the case was built on assumptions, theses, theories - but no proof [of Madar's involvement] was ever found". He added that although the Madar brothers exchanged texts about the Kardashians during Fashion Week it was just because they were "bored" and that when the heist took place Gary was asleep. Gary's brother, Michael, is not a defendant. "Five men did this. You don't think one of them was keeping an eye on who was coming and going from her hotel?" he said, suggesting that Mr Madar had only been arrested "to prove that the French justice system works". The trial will also attempt to determine where the jewels ended up. Police tracking of the gang's phones showed that soon after the heist Omar the Old travelled from Paris to Antwerp in Belgium, where 50% of the world's polished diamonds and 80% of rough diamonds are sold, according to the Diamond Investment Office. Many jewels were reportedly melted or broken up and sold. Abbas got 75,000 euro (£64,000); others far less. As for Kim Kardashian's engagement ring, Omar the Old said the gang was too scared to sell it on as it would be too easily traceable. It has never been found. Kim Kardashian was undoubtedly spooked by the event, which marked the start of her social media hiatus. In an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, she tearfully recalled the night of the heist and said had been scared for her life; later she also said the robbery had made her a "less materialistic person". Soon after the incident her sister Khloe told The Ellen DeGeneres that, for safety reasons, the Kardashian family were making some changes to how freely they posted on social media. "The biggest change was her security detail," KJ Matthews told the BBC. Patricia Tourancheau, the author of the book about the heist, said she was "fascinated" by the "clash between these old-style burglars from the Parisian banlieue and this global social media star". "They fled on bikes and she flies around on private jets," she laughed. "These are a group of elderly down-and-out thieves, they're always broke, they're forever involved in convoluted plans… and they're facing a huge celebrity and they don't even know who she is." The gang was not "elite" as it was suggested in the early days, she added. "This isn't the creme de la creme of French banditry. They're a bit of a bunch of losers, really. They're the same kind of people who in the 60s and 70s would burglar banks or post offices and who then rebranded to drug trafficking and then moved on to jewels because it was easier," she said. Around mid-May, Kim will face the suspects for the first time in years when she takes the stand as a witness. Cameras are not allowed in French courts but her arrival to the tribunal on Ile de la Cité alone will inevitably spark the same media frenzy that has accompanied her for over a decade. In his memoir, Abbas expressed the hope the victim's status and the global resonance of the case would not influence judges unduly. However, he also said that on the last day of the trial he would bring a duffle bag with his belongings, ready to be sent to jail. "The problem with the past," he wrote, "is that it sticks with you as long as you live". Kim Kardashian: How a Hollywood legend inspired me Kim K new owner of Princess Diana amethyst cross Kim Kardashian criticised over Marilyn dress diet
Sky News
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Kim Kardashian's Paris robbery trial: Everything you need to know
In October 2016, Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint - with jewellery worth millions of dollars stolen during the audacious heist in Paris. It was the biggest robbery of an individual in France for more than 20 years - and made front pages around the world. Now, almost a decade on, the case is finally coming to court. Why has it taken so long? Will Kardashian give evidence? And who exactly are the "grandpa robbers" facing trial? Here's everything you need to know. What happened? Two years after Kardashian and rapper Kanye West tied the knot in an ostentatious week-long celebration spanning Paris and Florence, the Kardashian-West clan were back in the French capital for Paris Fashion Week. Her then husband had returned to the US to pick up his Saint Pablo tour - but Kardashian, along with her sister Kourtney and various members of their entourage, remained in Paris, staying in an exclusive set of apartments so discreet they've been dubbed the No Address Hotel. Nestled on Tronchet Street, just a stone's throw from Place de l'Opéra, and close to the fashionable Avenue Montaigne, the Hotel de Pourtalès is popular with A-list stars staying in the French capital. A stay in the Sky Penthouse, the suite occupied by Kardashian, will currently set you back about £13,000 a night. On the evening of 3 October, after attending a fashion show with her sister, Kardashian remained in the apartment alone while the rest of her convoy - including her bodyguard Pascal Duvier - went out for the night. At about 2.30am, three armed men wearing ski masks and dressed as police forced their way into the apartment block - and according to investigators, they threatened the concierge at gunpoint. Two of them are alleged to have forced the concierge to lead them to Kardashian's suite. He later told police they yelled at him: "Where's the rapper's wife?" Kardashian said she had been "dozing" on her bed when the men then entered her room. She has said she believes her social media posts provided the alleged robbers with "a window of opportunity". "I was Snapchatting that I was home, and that everyone was going out," she said in the months after the incident. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star vividly described the attack in a police report, as reported in the French weekly paper Le Journal du Dimanche. "They grabbed me and took me into the hallway. They tied me up with plastic cables and taped my hands, then they put tape over my mouth and my legs." She said they pointed a gun at her, asking specifically for her ring and also for money. Kardashian says they carried her into the bathroom and put her in the bathtub. She said she was wearing only a bathrobe at the time. She had initially thought the robbers "were terrorists who had come to kidnap me", according to a French police report taken in New York three months after the robbery. Kardashian told officers: "I thought I was going to die." According to police, the robbers - who left the room after grabbing their haul, escaped on bicycles with items estimated to be worth about $10m (£7.5m), including a $4m (£3m) 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring from West. After they had left, Kardashian said she escaped her restraints and went to find help. After speaking to detectives, she immediately returned to the US on a private jet and later hired a completely new security team. What was stolen? As well as her engagement ring, Kardashian said the thieves took her large Louis Vuitton jewellery box, which she said contained "everything I owned". In police reports given to the French authorities at about 4.30am on the night of the alleged robbery, Kardashian listed these items as having been stolen: • Two diamond Cartier bracelets • A gold and diamond Jacob necklace • Diamond earrings by Lauren Schwartz • Yanina earrings • Three gold Jacob necklaces • Little bracelets, jewels and rings • A Lauren Schwartz diamond necklace • A necklace with six little diamonds • A necklace with Saint spelt out in diamonds • A cross-shaped diamond-encrusted Jacob cross • A yellow gold Rolex watch • Two yellow gold rings • An iPhone 6 and a BlackBerry Police recovered only the diamond-encrusted cross that was dropped by the robbers while leaving. It's likely the gold in the haul was melted down and resold, while the diamond engagement ring that is now so associated with the robbery would be far too recognisable to sell on the open market. What will happen in court? The hearing will begin at the Court of Appeal of Paris - the largest appeals court in France - on 28 April and is scheduled to last a month. It will consist of a presiding judge, two professional assessors, and six main jurors. The hearing involves more than 2,000 documents and there are four civil parties. Who is being tried? There were initially 12 defendants in the case, but one person has died and another has a medical condition that prevents their involvement. This means 10 people - nine men and one woman - are standing trial. Five of them, who were all aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the incident, face armed robbery and kidnapping charges. They are: • Yunice Abbas • Aomar Ait Khedache • Harminv Ait Khedache • Didier Dubreucq • Marc-Alexandre Boyer Abbas, 72, has admitted his participation in the robbery. In 2021, he published a book about the robbery, titled I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian. In 2021, a court ruled he would not benefit financially from the book. Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, known to French crime reporters as "Old Omar", has also admitted participating in the heist but denies the prosecution's accusation that he was the ringleader. The remaining five defendants are charged with complicity in the heist or the unauthorised possession of a weapon. They are: • Florus Heroui • Gary Mader • Christiane Glotin • François Delaporte • Marc Boyer Among those, Mader was a VIP greeter who worked for the car company Kardashian used in Paris, and Heroui was a bar manager who allegedly passed on information about Kardashian's movements. With many of the accused now ageing and with various serious health conditions, and some having spent time in jail following their arrest, all are currently free under judicial supervision. If found guilty, those accused of the more serious crimes could face 10 years to life imprisonment. Will Kardashian give evidence? Yes. Lawyer Michael Rhodes said Kardashian has "tremendous appreciation and admiration for the French judicial system" and "wishes for the trial to proceed in an orderly fashion in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case". A trainee lawyer herself, Kardashian has become a high-profile criminal justice advocate in the US in recent years. Why has it taken so long to come to court? There was initially a manhunt after the robbery, with French police under pressure to prove that Paris's security was not in question. Just the year before in 2015, the capital had been shaken by terrorist attacks by Islamic militants, in which 130 people were killed, including 90 at a music event at the Bataclan theatre. French police initially arrested 17 people in the Kardashian case in January 2017 - three months after the robbery - assisted by DNA traces found on plastic bands used to tie her wrists. Twelve people were later charged. It was ordered to be sent to trial in 2021 - at a time when limited court proceedings were happening due to multiple COVID lockdowns, and France was holding its largest ever criminal trial over the November 2015 terror attacks. What has Kardashian said about the incident? Kardashian has described the robbery as a "life-changing" moment. She took three weeks away from filming her reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and took a three-month break from social media. In a March 2017 episode of titled Paris, Kardashian first spoke publicly about her ordeal. She described first hearing a noise in her apartment, and calling out, thinking it was her sister and assistant: "At that moment when there wasn't an answer, my heart started to get really tense. Like, you know, your stomach just kind of like, knots up and you're like, 'OK, what's going on?' I knew something wasn't quite right." She went on: "They asked for money. I said, 'I don't have any money'. They dragged me out to the hallway on top of the stairs. That's when I saw the gun, clear as day. I was looking at the gun, looking down back at the stairs. I was like, I have a split second in my mind to make this quick decision. "Either they're going to shoot me in the back or if I make it [down the stairs] and the elevator does not open in time or the stairs are locked, there's no way out." Three months later, she told a Forbes Power Women's Summit she had changed her approach to posting on social media: "They had followed my moves on social media, and they knew my every move and what I had." She added: "It was definitely a huge, huge, huge lesson for me to not show off some of the things that I have. It was a huge lesson to me to not show off where I go. "It's just changed my whole life, but I think for the better." In October 2020, Kardashian told US interviewer David Letterman she feared she would be raped and murdered during the heist, and that her sister had been at the forefront of her mind during the incident. Speaking on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Kardashian said: "I kept on thinking about Kourtney, I kept on thinking she's going to come home and I'm going to be dead in the room and she's going to be traumatised for the rest of her life if she sees me... I thought that was my fate." When speaking to French police about the impact the robbery had had on her three months after it, Kardashian said: "I think that my perception of jewellery now is that I am not as attached to it as I used to be. I don't have the same feeling about it. In fact, I even think that it has become a bit of a burden to have the responsibility of such expensive jewels. "There is nothing of sentimental value to compare with the act of going home and finding one's children and one's family." She went on to describe Paris as "not the right place" for her, and didn't return to the French capital for two years following the robbery. Kardashian has since said in a 2023 episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians that she did not purchase any jewellery in the seven years following the robbery, kept no jewellery at her home and only wore items that are either borrowed or fake. She said the realisation that material items don't matter has made her "a completely different person in the best way".
