BBC Information, Paris and London
Getty PicturesThe trial has begun of 10 people who find themselves accused of robbing Kim Kardashian at a Paris lodge in 2016.
The fact TV star and enterprise lady was tied up and held at gunpoint in a luxurious suite the place she was staying throughout Paris Style Week.
About $10m (£7.5m) value of jewels had been taken from her, together with a $4m (£2.9m) diamond engagement from then-husband Kanye West.
In a grand courtroom adorned with nineteenth Century tapestries, the courtroom was given a captivating snapshot into the lives of the various forged of characters suspected of involvement within the heist.
For the primary one up – 71-year-old Yunice Abbas – this was finished via a “enquête de personnalité”, a type of background report on an individual accused of against the law which French courts often embrace of their trials. These reviews absorb parts of the defendant’s household historical past, behaviour and work to color an image of their lives and assist jurors decide.
The courtroom heard a protracted record of crimes that Abbas has been discovered responsible of previously – from petty crime and small-time drug trafficking to financial institution robberies – and retraced his troublesome childhood, which was partly spent in Algeria and marked by the deaths of two of his siblings.
Abbas – who has spent nearly a 3rd of his life in jail – has already admitted to his function within the heist, and even wrote a memoir entitled I Held Up Kim Kardashian. The president of the courtroom, David De Pas, urged that the ebook exhibits Abbas was happy with what he did – one thing he has repeatedly denied.
When requested if he had any sympathy for his victims, Abbas mentioned that he by no means did earlier than the Kardashian heist, “however this time I do remorse what I did… It opened my eyes.”
Abbas mentioned that whereas watching tv in jail, he was confronted with relentless protection of the housebreaking, which made him realise how a lot Kim Kardashian had suffered.
“We simply grabbed the girl’s purse however I’ve found there’s trauma behind it,” he mentioned.
EPAThe courtroom additionally targeted on Gary Madar, whose brother’s firm supplied transportation and taxis to the Kardashians for a number of years. Now 35, the father-of-two has been accused of feeding data to the gang about Kim Kardashian’s location on the evening of the heist.
On the time, Gary labored as a customer support agent in airports for the transport firm. His activity was to welcome VIPs arriving at Paris airports and escort them via passport and customs checks. By this job, he met the Kardashians a number of instances.
However he additionally labored at a café owned by one other defendant, Florus Héroui, 52, to whom investigators consider Madar handed on details about Kim Kardashian.
He has denied this and his lawyer has instructed the BBC that Madar shouldn’t be on the dock as there may be “no stable proof” of his involvement.
Marc Boyer, 78, who’s accused of supplying the weapon that was used to threaten Kardashian, was additionally questioned at size. He expressed remorse that his son Marc-Alexandre Boyer – additionally a defendant – had grown up surrounded by “thieves” and “crooks” who had led him to make the flawed life decisions.
The remainder of the week will see extra defendants take the stand because the trial ticks on in the direction of 13 Could – the day Kim Kardashian is predicted to testify.
Many of the 400 journalists reporting on this trial are anticipated to flock to the courthouse that day, and courtroom employees are not sure how they’ll accommodate so many reporters who will desire a entrance seat.
Getty PicturesThe courtroom will solely hear from 10 out of the 12 individuals who had been arrested in 2017, as one died final month, and one other, aged 81, might be excused as he has superior dementia.
One other, Aomar Ait Khedache, might be up on Wednesday – however he’s now almost deaf and mute and must write his solutions down on a chunk of paper.
The trial is going down eight and a half years after the heist.
Patricia Tourancheau, against the law reporter and creator of a ebook on the theft, instructed the BBC that Paris courts had been busy with massive terrorism trials for a number of years, which created a backlog.
She additionally mentioned the lengthy wait needed to do with the defendants’ age and well being points which meant they spent little time in provisional detention.
“As soon as they had been freed it felt much less pressing for judges to convey this to trial,” Tourancheau mentioned.
