One suspect in reality TV star Kim Kardashian's armed robbery said he regrets the “trauma” that caused nearly nine years since Kardashian was tied up and hugged the monkey agged during Paris Fashion Week in October 2016.
The robbery was considered the biggest robbery that Paris had seen for decades to target individuals. Six citizen ju judges will hold the trial along with three magistrates. This is a procedure in France that is reserved for the most serious crimes.
Defendant Yunice Abbas said this was the first time he has truly recognized the “trauma” that caused Kardashian, as trials began Tuesday against 10 people charged in connection with the 2016 robbery.
“I regret that, not because I was caught, but because I had trauma,” Abbas, 72, told the ju decree.
Defendant Yunis Abbas arrives on April 28, 2025 at Assitting Court in Paris for the start of the trial of the 2016 robbery and the temptation of US celebrity Kim Kardashian.
Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP Getty Images
Abbas is the first of several defendants set up to testify at trial, and has previously confessed about his role in the 2021 book, “I had lured Kim Kardashian to him.”
According to NBC News, he claimed he was not responsible for the title in the book and was not involved in tying Kardashians during the robbery.
Abbas said he acted as a watchdog on the reception area on the first floor and confirmed that the escape route was clear. He said he was unarmed and although he did not personally threaten Kardashian, he admitted that he shared responsibility for the crime.
He was arrested in January 2017 and spent 21 months in prison before being released under judicial supervision. Abbas and nine others are said to have played different roles in the robbery, known in local media as “grandpa robbers” due to their age.
According to Abbas, minutes after the attack began, his accomplice came down from the Kardashian apartment and gave him a bag of jewels.
He was running away from the scene on his bike, so he saw the police car, but the officers had not yet noticed the robbery. Abbas said that as he rode the bike, the bag containing the jewels got caught in the front wheels, fell to the ground, spilling the contents of the bag.
“I picked up the jewel and left,” he said.
The next morning, passersby spotted a diamond-covered cross in the street and handed it over to the police. This was the only jewel from a heist who had been recovered to date.
Abbas claimed he had no knowledge of Kardashian's identity at the time of the robbery.
“I was told about a celebrity, a rapper's wife, and that's all the information I had,” he said. “Until the next morning, when I heard about influencers on TV. That's when I realized who she was.”
During questions Tuesday, Abbas spoke about his criminal past, including armed robbery at a Belgian bank. He said that when he was young he opposed theft but later turned his eyes to a life of crime due to the bad influence of his friends and the difficulties of money.
He said, “I didn't have a role model,” and did what he believed he needed to do to feed his children.
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For the years following the robbery, Abbas said he was “very worried” about what happened that day and “cannot do anything but an apology.”
In an account with investigators, Kardashian explained that the two men were heading towards their bedroom in a private apartment complex in Paris, pointing their guns at her and asking for the ring. She said she was tied up with plastic cables and tape while intruders searched for gems containing engagement rings worth millions of dollars.
Originally, 12 people were expected in the defendant's box. One dies, the other is seriously ill and cannot be tried. Five of the 10 defendants were present at the scene of the robbery, according to the investigation.
Others who are expected to withstand trial include the mastermind who is allegedly included the 68-year-old AOMARAït Khedache. His son Haminy, 37, is accused of being a getaway driver. Didier Dubrec, 69, known as “blue eyes.” And Christian Grotchen, 78, is expected to go to trial as an accomplice in the robbery.
This court sketch, held on April 28, 2025, shows defendants Aomar Aot Khedache (C, Front), Francois Delaporte (R, Up), Florus Heroui (2nd R, UP), Christiane Glotin (4th T, Up) in the 2016 robbery and kidnapping of our celebrity Kardashian, and in the 2016 robbery and kidnapping of our celebrity Kardashian, and in the 2016 robbery and kidnapping of our celebrity Kardashian, and in the 2016 stolen robbery and kidnapping of our celebrity Kardashian, and in the 2016 stolen robbery and kidnapping of our celebrity Kardashian.
Benoit Peyrucq/AFP via Getty Images
Gary Madhar, 35-year-old brother of the Kardashian driver in Paris, is also expected to be on trial. He is accused of tilting others towards the Kardashian location.
Defendant Gary Madhar at the trial of 2016 robbery at the Assitting Court in Paris and the lure of US celebrity Kim Kardashian on April 28, 2025.
Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP Getty Images
Kardashian, 44, is expected to testify in person at a trial, which is scheduled to run until May 23rd. Her lawyer says she will testify first hand and is expected to speak on May 13th.
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“Mr. Kardashian has reserved testimony from the court and the ju judge and would not like to elaborate further at this time,” they said. “She has great respect and admiration for the French judicial system and has been treated with great respect by the French authorities.”
In an interview and her family's reality TV show, she explained that she was terrified as the robber pointed her a gun. She said she thought she would be raped and killed.
In March 2017, by catching up with her mother of four, Kardashians, theorized that a group of men were chasing their entire trip to Paris to their families, and that night she informed her followers that everyone, including then-Bodyard Pascal Duvier, was out and she was alone.
“What I think happened now after thinking a lot about it is that there was probably a group of people who were following the entire trip. I was at home and snapchat about how everyone was out.
“They had this window of opportunity and just went for it,” she said.
She explained that she was falling asleep in her room when she heard her heart pounding on the stairs. She thought it was her sister Courtney and her assistant Stephanie. Without replying, she continued to call for “hello.”
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“At that moment, when there was no answer, my mind started to get really tense. Like your stomach, like a knot, and you're like, 'OK, what's going on?”,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”
She told the sisters what happened after the armed robbers entered.
“I saw two guys in police uniforms just outside my bedroom five feet away, hugging another man. So I slid out of bed and picked up the phone. 'I don't know how to call 911 in another country.' So I called Pascal and the guy came in and grabbed the phone from me and I threw me into the bed.
She recognizes the handcuffed concierge and says she holds the key to the room.
“I've heard of it by talking to the (concierge) afterwards, and they said, 'Where is the rapper's wife? Let us go in her room,'” she said.
“He grabbed my foot – I wasn't dressed there – and he pulled me towards him in front of the bed and I thought, 'OK, this is the moment he rapes me,'” the Skims founder said in her interview.
“I prepared myself completely mentally, but he didn't. He taped my legs together and then they had a gun on me.
Kardashian's lawyer Michael Rhodes said reality television stars and entrepreneurs “hopefully proceed in orderly manner in accordance with French law and with respect for all involved in the case.”
– Use files from Associated Press
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