Kim Kardashian to testify in Paris armed robbery trial as proceedings get under way

Published

4 months ago

May 2, 2025

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A trial has started in France over the 2016 heist in which armed robbers tied up Kim Kardashian and stole millions of dollars’ worth of jewellery during Paris Fashion Week.

The reality star turned business mogul was targeted during the early hours of 3 October 2016 while staying at the Hotel de Pourtales.

Kardashian is expected to testify in person at the Palais de Justice on 13 May.

Her lawyers said: “Ms Kardashian is reserving her testimony for the court and jury and does not wish to elaborate further at this time.

“She has great respect and admiration for the French justice system and has been treated with great respect by the French authorities.”

Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery trial: Everything you need to know

The trial began with the selection of the jury of six citizens who will conduct the trial along with three magistrates – a procedure in France reserved for the most serious crimes.

There were initially 12 defendants in the case, but one person has since died and another has a medical condition that prevents their involvement.

Ten people – nine men and one woman – are currently standing trial.

Five of the suspects – Yunice Abbas, Aomar Ait Khedache, Harminv Ait Khedache, Didier Dubreucq and Marc-Alexandre Boyer – are facing armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

The remaining five defendants – Gary Madar, Christiane Glotin, Francois Delaporte and Marc Boyer – are charged with complicity in the heist or the unauthorised possession of a weapon.

Two have acknowledged their participation. The others have denied it.

The group has been nicknamed “the grandpa robbers” in local media, owing to some of them being in their 60s and 70s.

The court heard how Kardashian told investigators she was taken to a bathroom and placed in the bathtub. Her attackers fled on bicycles or on foot, and she freed herself by removing the tape.

She then rushed to her stylist’s room and called her sister Kourtney.

Kardashian told investigators that she had not been injured. She filed a complaint, adding that she wanted to leave France as soon as possible to be reunited with her children.

According to her testimony and that of the concierge, Abderrahmane Ouatiki, at least one suspect had a handgun with which he threatened the victims.

Lawyer Henri de Beauregard, representing Mr Ouatiki, said the intruders “were experienced, determined criminals who did not hesitate to threaten him while he was working nights to finance his studies”.

The robbers stole many pieces of jewellery estimated to be worth $6m, including Kardashian’s engagement ring.

Only one piece – a diamond cross on platinum that was lost during the suspects’ escape – has been recovered.

Two of the accused have partially confessed to the crime as their DNA was found at the scene.

Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, is one of two who allegedly entered the apartment.

Nicknamed “Old Omar,” his genetic profile was found on the tape used to gag Kardashian.

Khedache’s lawyer, Franck Berton, said his client was pleading guilty because he acknowledges his participation and “will apologise, will actually explain how it happened, how he was contacted and finally how the events unfolded”.

Khedache, who is deaf, will answer the court’s questions in writing.

He is said to have left the hotel on a bicycle, as did two others, then reportedly met his son, who was allegedly waiting for him in a parked car at a nearby train station.

Yunice Abbas, 71, admitted tying up the concierge but denied going into Kardashian’s apartment.

He said he acted as a lookout in the ground floor reception area, making sure the escape route was clear.

Gabriel Dumenil, Abbas’ lawyer, said his client aims to “deliver his own truth and explain the reasons that prompted him to do this and simply perhaps also ask for forgiveness and express his remorse”.

Abbas was arrested in January 2017 and spent 21 months in prison before being released under judicial supervision.

In 2021, he co-authored a French-language book titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian”.

Didier Dubreucq, 69, known as “Blue Eyes”, is the second alleged robber suspected of entering the apartment.

He denies involvement, although he was filmed by CCTV cameras, and numerous telephone contacts with the other co-defendants show his involvement, according to the investigators.

The other defendants are suspected of providing information about Kardashian’s presence in the property or accused of playing a role in the reset of the jewellery in Antwerp, Belgium.

Entertainment

Meghan reveals who said ‘I love you’ first with Harry – and what she misses about the UK

Published

3 hours ago

August 26, 2025

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Meghan reveals who said 'I love you' first with Harry - and what she misses about the UK

The second season of the Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle show With Love, Meghan, has been released.

Over the eight-episode series, which features celebrity guests including US model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen and Queer Eye’s Tan France, Meghan opens up about what she misses most about the UK, the meal she cooked on the night Prince Harry proposed, and who said “I love you” first.

Despite Harry not making a cameo in the Netflix show, Meghan does give some insight into her life in California with the prince, and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.

In one episode, she says it was Harry who first said he loved her, and that she fell in love with him while camping in Botswana, on the pair’s third date.

“We met in Bostwana and we camped for five days together,” she says, adding: “You really get to know someone when you are in a little tent.”

Later, Meghan reveals she tried to make a roast chicken on the night Harry proposed in 2017, but it didn’t turn out how she expected.

“I will say when I made a roast chicken for my now-husband I was still having a lot of challenges with the conversion of celsius and fahrenheit. I made a horrible chicken that night. I mean, truly terrible,” she says.

After first getting married, Meghan had planned to apply for British citizenship. But the pair later moved to the US after stepping down from their roles as working royals.

In episode three, with British fashion designer Tan France, Meghan admits one of the things she “misses the most” about the UK, after leaving five years ago.

She says: “Honestly, one of the things I miss the most about the UK is the radio station called Magic.”

To which France quips: “Magic FM. Wow! Now, sorry to say this to you publicly, but that’s such a grandma station.”

A laughing Meghan replies: “I’ll be that grandma.”

During a moment where the pair are crafting aprons for their children, Meghan says she “always wanted to be a mum”, which is now “better than she expected” after the birth of Archie, in 2019, and Lilibet – who they call Lili for short – in 2021.

Sympathising with France, who explained he gets heartbroken if away from his two young children for more than a couple of days, the duchess says the longest she and Harry have ever been without seeing their children is almost three weeks.

“I was… not well,” Meghan says about the separation.

In Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, he wrote of the “difficult days” after Queen Elizabeth’s death and how he and Meghan were separated from Archie and Lili for “longer than we’d ever been”.

He said when they reunited at their home in Montecito, “for days and days we couldn’t stop hugging the children, couldn’t let them out of our sight”.

The premiere of the second season of With Love, Meghan comes two weeks after Harry and Meghan announced a watered-down deal with the streaming giant Netflix.

They have signed a “multi-year, first-look deal for film and television projects”, in contrast to their reported $100m (£74m) contract five years ago.

Entertainment

Lil Nas X pleads not guilty after being charged with assaulting police officer

Published

10 hours ago

August 26, 2025

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Lil Nas X pleads not guilty after being charged with assaulting police officer

US rapper Lil Nas X has pleaded not guilty after being charged with assaulting a police officer while walking in downtown Los Angeles in his underwear.

The musician, real name Montero Lamar Hill, was taken to hospital and arrested after police responded to reports of a naked man shortly before 6am on Thursday.

The district attorney’s office said on Monday that Lil Nas X faces three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer.

He was being held on a $75,000 (£55,457) bail, conditional on attending drug treatment. It is not immediately clear whether he had posted it and been released yet.

He is set to return to court on 15 September for his next pre-trial hearing.

During the hearing on Monday, Hill’s lawyer Christy O’Connor told the judge he had led a “remarkable” life, adding: “Assuming the allegations here are true, this is an absolute aberration in this person’s life.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to him.”

A law enforcement source told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, on Thursday that the Old Town Road and Industry Baby hitmaker punched an officer twice in the face during the encounter.

The source added officers were unsure whether he was on any substances or in mental distress.

NBC News cited TMZ footage where Hill was seen walking down the middle of Ventura Boulevard at 4am on Thursday in a pair of white briefs and cowboy boots.

In the videos, Hill tells a driver to “come to the party” in one clip and in another tells the person: “Didn’t I tell you to put the phone down?”

“Uh oh, someone’s going to have to pay for that,” Hill says as he continues to walk away.

In some clips, Hill struts as if he’s on a catwalk, posing for onlookers, and at one point he places an orange traffic cone on his head.

Entertainment

Bands pull out from festival after group ‘cut off’ over Palestine flag

Published

2 days ago

August 24, 2025

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Bands pull out from festival after group 'cut off' over Palestine flag

Several bands have pulled out from the Victorious music festival just hours before their scheduled performances, following claims by Irish folk group The Mary Wallopers that they were “cut off” for displaying a Palestinian flag.

The Last Dinner Party, Cliffords, and The Academic announced on Saturday that they would no longer be performing at the annual music festival in Portsmouth following Friday’s incident.

The organisers, who said the band’s set was cut short for using a “discriminatory” chant, have since apologised and promised to make “a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people”.

Rock band The Last Dinner Party said they are “outraged” by the incident and would boycott the festival.

“We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious. As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today,” they said in a statement shared on their Instagram page.

“As Gazans are deliberately plunged into catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence, it is urgent and obvious that artists use their platform to draw attention to the cause.

“To see an attempt to direct attention away from the genocide in order to maintain an apolitical image is immensely disappointing.”

The Last Dinner Party said that throughout the summer, they have used their performances to encourage their audiences to make donations to a medical charity supporting Palestinians and urged their fans “more than ever to do the same”.

The band said they are “devastated to be put in this position” and apologised to those who were hoping to see them perform.

Following The Mary Wallopers’ set, a spokesperson for Victorious said: “We spoke to the artist before the performance regarding the festival’s long-standing policy of not allowing flags of any kind at the event, but that we respect their right to express their views during the show.

“Although a flag was displayed on stage contrary to our policy, and this was raised with the artist’s crew, the show was not ended at this point, and it was the artist’s decision to stop the song.”

The Mary Wallopers claimed the festival had released a “misleading statement to the press claiming they cut our sound because of a discriminatory chant, and not the band’s call to Free Palestine”.

The band said their video “clearly shows a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with our show, removing the flag from the stage and then the sound being cut following a chant of ‘Free Palestine'”.

“The same crew member is later heard in the video saying ‘you aren’t playing until the flag is removed’,” the band added.

Rock band The Academic have also pulled out of the festival, saying they could not “in good conscience” perform at “a festival that silences free speech”, while Irish band Cliffords said they “refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine”.

After the bands’ announcements that they were pulling out of the festival, the organisers released another statement, saying that they did not handle “the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached”, and issued an apology.