Kim Kardashian's robbery in 2016: twelve people sent to trial
Steph Deschamps / November 19, 2021
Five years after the resounding robbery in Paris of the American star Kim Kardashian, two judges ordered Friday the referral to the assizes of twelve people, learned AFP source close to the case.
They will be tried for, among other things, armed robbery committed in an organized gang, kidnapping and sequestration or criminal association de malfaiteurs, most often as repeat offenders.
On the night of October 2 to 3, 2016, Kim Kardashian, then 36 years old, had been robbed by several men, some dressed as police officers, in a discreet luxury hotel residence in Paris, where she had come to attend Fashion Week.
Two robbers had held a gun to her head and tied her up and gagged her.
He asked me with a strong French accent for my ring, she told the police just after the theft. They tied me up then carried me to my bathroom, where the young woman had been locked up.
Three other men were standing watch at the front desk, with a sixth man driving a vehicle to ensure escape.
The robbers had taken several diamond and gold jewels, including a stone of 18.88 carats. Total amount of the damage: more than six million euros, according to the order of indictment consulted by the AFP.
Only some of the jewelry, lost by the criminals in their flight, was found, the judges noted. The investigators believe that the rest was sold mainly in Belgium.
The group, described by the police as an old-fashioned gang of crooks, is suspected of having carried out the biggest robbery of a private individual in the last twenty years in France.
After five years of investigation, the two investigating judges in charge of the case have largely followed on Friday the referral orders of the Paris prosecutor's office, made in June 2020.
Ten alleged gang members are on trial for the robbery or kidnapping of Ms. Kardashian, while an eleventh is on trial only for another criminal project that judges suspected part of the gang was working on after the one targeting Ms. Kardashian.
A twelfth will appear on a related weapons offense.