Nearly nine years after the shocking robbery of Kim Kardashian in a Paris hotel, ten people will appear before court. Nine million euros worth of jewelry was stolen, most of which has never been recovered. The American star will testify at the trial, billed as the “grandpa robbery” case due to the age of the defendants.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The shocking 2016 robbery of Kim Kardashian in a Paris hotel is finally going to trial nearly 9 years later.
00:07In what has been called the biggest theft of an individual in France in 20 years,
00:11Kardashian was robbed of some 10 million dollars worth of jewelry.
00:15Several of the people involved had long been known in the French criminal underworld.
00:19Aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the crime, they were dubbed the grandpa robbers.
00:25There is no doubt that this narrative is about the sympathetic baby-breaker Robin Desbois.
00:32It's not the people that our client had in front of him this day.
00:36Nine men and one woman are being tried in connection to the robbery.
00:40One of the accused described the events of that night to AFP in 2021.
00:44I would like to ask if it was interesting to enter into this story.
00:48After all the hesitation, the idea ends up doing its path.
00:52Because we don't think we're more capable.
00:54If I'm too old, I can't do it.
00:56Do I have a sense of fear?
00:59And at some point, we believe.
01:01And then I said, no, no, no, no.
01:03I was able to do it.
01:04I took the challenge and I did it.
01:06But if you do it, if you regret it, I regret it right away.
01:09Some four years after the robbery,
01:11Abbas controversially wrote a book on the events of that night,
01:14seemingly seeking to capitalize on the heist.
01:16The book was titled, I kidnapped Kim Kardashian,
01:19despite claiming to have just been one of the lookouts.
01:21When I was out of the building, I was walking with a police patrol.
01:29My colleagues were already left.
01:31And I was the last one.
01:32I closed the door and they looked at me.
01:35I made a little sign like that.
01:37I said, hello.
01:38They did a round, all of a sudden.
01:41Well, of course, I wasn't at my pace.
01:44But I gave a serenity.
01:46I tried to do it.
01:48It worked.
01:49The grandpa robbers are accused of threatening Kardashian with a gun to her head
01:53before tying her up to her bed and gagging her.
01:56Meanwhile, three men kept watching at reception,
01:58with another waiting at the wheel of a getaway car.
02:01The entire robbery lasted around 10 minutes.
02:04Most of the pieces, including a gold Rolex and nearly 19-carat diamond ring gifted to Kardashian by her then-husband Kanye West, now legally known as Yeh, were never found.
02:17But police did recover a diamond-encrusted cross that Abbas dropped while leaving the scene by bike.
02:34Abbas has no plans to contest the charges against him at trial.
02:38He also claims that he did not know who Kardashian was at the time of the heist.
02:47I've never done it all in my heart.
02:49I did it because I felt like I was supposed to do it.
02:52Because I had needs, because it didn't move from the other side.
02:56It's a solution that can seem to be a robbery at some point, but it's an illusion.
03:02It's hell.
03:03Abbas and the other suspects were arrested three months after the robbery through DNA evidence.
03:08All 12 were charged, with 10 currently on trial.
03:11One of the men died in March 2025, and another is expected to be tried separately for health reasons.
03:18Kim Kardashian is expected to testify on the 13th of May.