The Japan Times - 'I thought I was going to die,' Kardashian tells Paris robbery trial

The trial of 10 suspects has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and crowds flocking around the courthouse on Paris's historic Ile de la Cite hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity.

"Hi! I'm Kim Kardashian and I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for allowing me to testify today and tell my truth," she told the packed court when she began giving evidence, wearing a black suit.

"I came to Paris for Fashion Week and Paris is always a place I love so much," Kardashian said, giving the court her account of the night of October 2-3, 2016, when she was robbed while staying at an exclusive, discreet hotel in central Paris.

- 'I said a prayer for my family' -

She was in her room -- "with my best friend downstairs, my sister and my friend and my mom... all out for the night" -- when she heard "stomping" up the stairs.

Then people "who I assumed were police officers because they were in uniform" entered her room, said Kardashian, who is among the world's most followed people on Instagram and X.

"Then I heard one of the gentlemen say 'ring' a few times over, 'ring', 'ring' and he pointed his finger with an accent," she said, adding she didn't at first "understand it was for my jewellery".

The man found what he was looking for, a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, and valued at 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million).

The attackers then began to look for more valuables, threatened Kardashian with a gun and tied her up with a zip tie, she said, visibly emotional.

"I was certain that he was going to shoot me so I said a prayer for my family," she said.

Asked by the presiding judge if she feared she was going to be killed, Kardashian replied: "I absolutely did. I thought I was going to die."

She said she also feared she would be raped but the man with the gun "closed my legs and put a tape on my leg".

- 'Absolutely terrifying' -

Kardashian side she was "grabbed and dragged into the other room" but not hit by the men.

Their sudden appearance and the gun were, however, "absolutely terrifying".

From comments from one of the men, "I felt that he wanted me to know that I would be OK if I just shut up".

Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records.

They have underworld nicknames like "Old Omar" and "Blue Eyes" that resemble those of old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s films noirs.

Sixty-eight-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, known as "Old Omar", has admitted to tying up Kardashian but denies being the mastermind of the robbery.

Another suspect in the dock, 71-year-old Yunice Abbas, later wrote a book about the heist.

In it he describes how his bag became caught in the wheel of his escape vehicle, a bicycle, causing him to fall off and have to scramble to shove the loot back in the bag.

- 'Changed the way I felt safe' -

Investigators said a man called Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian's driver in Paris, tipped the suspects off that Kardashian was "in French territory".

This allegation has been ridiculed by Madar's lawyer, who remarked that 350 million online followers were already aware of the star's whereabouts.

Kardashian's bodyguard, Pascal D., rushed back to the hotel after Kardashian tried to call and then failed to pick up her phone.

When Pascal D. found her, Kardashian "was in a terrible state. She was crying hysterically", he told the court.

Kardashian has never viewed her security in the same way since the Paris robbery, she told the court.

"It changed the way that I felt safe at home," she said, adding she now relied on up to six security guards at home.

In what she called "a copycat" burglary, her house in Los Angeles was robbed a month after the Paris heist "because they heard it happened in Paris".

The trial is set to end on May 23.

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M.Saito--JT