Laura Gozzireporting from the Court of Justice in Paris
The BBC reports from the Paris Court following Kim Kardashian’s testimony
Kim Kardashian gave emotional testimony to a Paris courthouse, telling the judge that he thought he would die at the hands of a masked gunman who stole millions of dollars of jewelry in a luxury hotel suite in 2016.
The reality TV star and experimenter, tied up during the trials and holding a gun in his head – faced the suspected attacker for the first time, giving evidence of the incident.
Nine men and one woman are on trial for armed robbery of 10 million pounds (£7.55 million) worth of jewelry, including her ex-husband Kanye West’s diamond engagement ring.
Testifying at the front of the BBC, Kardashian spoke in court for more than three hours on Tuesday.
Her evidence was occasionally interrupted by apologies from two defendants.
One of the defendants, AOMAR AIT KHEDACHE, 71, sat from Kardashian in court and expressed his regret, and she turned to him and said she had forgiven him.
Referring to her activism in the United States and her dream of becoming a lawyer in order to improve the judicial system, she thanked Khedache for his apology letter.
“I appreciate it, I’ll forgive you,” she told him in the stands crying.
“But it doesn’t change the emotions, emotions, trauma, and the way my life has changed.”
“I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, who allowed me to testify and tell the truth today,” the TV star told a media-packed court on Tuesday.
Trials for crimes committed more than nine years ago have been going on for many years, and reports have been in close proximity.
Wearing a tailored black suit and diamond jewelry, Kardashian was supported in court by his mother, Kris Jenner, several friends and a pack of bodyguards.
She testified from time to time, messed with her long nails, overwhelmed by emotions, and was upset in the first hour of pausing when she fought back tears. However, she seemed to be relaxing and gathering strength.
She also expressed her forgiveness to one of the defendants who apologised to her during her testimony.
Tuesday’s court session was the first time Kardashian relayed her account of the armed robbery and the extent of her fear during and after the attack to Criminal Court.
“I was sure they were going to shoot me.”
She recounted that she was in town for Paris Fashion Week on October 2nd, retiring at night around 03:00 when two masked shooters in police uniforms exploded into her room, dragging the hotel receptionist who was tied up and monkeyed.
She managed to call her bodyguard and one of the men unspoken the phone from her. They snatched her engagement ring lying on the bedside table, then “picked me up from the bed and grabbed me and took me down the hallway,” she said.
At this point one of the men had her gun and “It was the first moment I thought of, should I run it? But it wasn’t an option, so I stayed.”
Kardashian said she was thrown into the bed and her hands were tied with a zip tie. At this point, she told the concierge:
One of the men then pulled her towards him and opened her robe.
She told the court she was worried that she would be raped, saying that she had said prayers to prepare herself mentally.
But then her legs were tied together and the gun was pointed at her. She said at that point, “I was sure they were going to shoot me.”
She thought of her family at that point and offered a “prayer” that they didn’t need to experience her murder.
She expressed her fear to her sister Courtney and had to step into her hotel room and find out, “I was shot in the bed, and she saw it and has that memory forever.”
When Judge David De Path asked if he thought she was going to die, she replied in a small voice: “I thought I would definitely die.”
Kardashian said she saw the eyes of the man who bound her to try to remember the details – and told her that she told her that she was fine if she stayed quiet.
Reuters
Kim Kardashian court sketch giving evidence in Paris on Tuesday
After the robbers took their jewelry, they jumped out of the suite and left the Kardashian in the bathroom. She then said she released her hand from the cable tie and jumped down the stairs to the first floor of the suite.
They then ran to the balcony and asked for help while hiding in the bushes. Kardashians are worried that the man might return and when the Paris police showed up, they said they couldn’t trust them as the robbers were wearing police uniforms as well.
During her testimony in a packed court, Kardashian also answered several questions from the judge about why her safety did not exist at the time.
Her usual team had been sent to take her sister Courtney to the club, but Kim was staying.
She told the court that she and her family didn’t have a bodyguard with her until the robbery, as she didn’t believe she and her family needed that level of security. She said she previously felt safe and could go out on the streets of Paris herself, and they were happy with the security team staying at another hotel.
“It all changed,” she said after Paris. She has hired up to six people to protect her home tonight, and she said she has begun to get “a phobia of going out” as people thought “looking at me and knowing my home is open.”
“If you know there’s no multiple security, you won’t be able to sleep at night,” she said. She said concerns about the copycat attack and that her Los Angeles home was stolen even before her family returned from her trip to Paris.
I’m asking for closure
Kardashian’s testimony on Tuesday was interrupted in several respects by offers of apology from two court defendants who pleaded guilty to the charges. She accepted Khedache’s apology, but she refused to acknowledge the presence of other defendants who were dissenting the charges.
She ignored former driver Gary Madhar, who has been accused of flipping the robber ring over her whereabouts. He denied the charges.
She also expressed her anger at Yunice Abbas, who published a 2021 memoir before a trial titled “I held up Kim Kardashian.”
“I was really shocked when I saw the book,” Kardashian told the court on Tuesday.
“He not only did this, but now [he’s] My jewelry, my memories, my late father’s watch gave me when I graduated from high school. I can’t get it back. ”
She also told the court that she hopes to close the minutes of the trial.
“I’m the victim of this case and it’s the first time I’ve really heard and followed everyone,” she said.
“This is what I do. I want to be a lawyer, and I believe that everyone has the opportunity to tell them the truth.
Kardashian added that her job is “telling my truth and hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
“It’s terrifying, life-changing, and I don’t want anybody to have that fear — as I think you can be killed or raped — I don’t want it from my worst enemy.”
