Kim Kardashian testifies about being held at gunpoint in jewelry heist

PARIS - Kim Kardashian thought her life was over on the night in October 2016 when she was robbed at gunpoint in her Paris apartment.

“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” Kardashian said Tuesday as she testified in the criminal trial relating to her robbery during Paris Fashion Week.

Kardashian, 44, hadn’t seen the men accused of robbing her at gunpoint since they allegedly entered her room nearly nine years ago, restrained her with tape and zip ties and threatened her with a gun before stealing her engagement ring and other jewelry and valuables. Now, a few of the accused had a front-row seat to hear her recount the ordeal.

Ten people - nine men and one woman - are on trial on charges including armed robbery in an organized gang, kidnapping and unauthorized acquisition and possession of weapons. There were initially two other defendants in the case, but one person died and another person couldn’t be tried because of poor health, the Court of Appeal of Paris said.

In a teary testimony, Kardashian recalled being in her room at the Hôtel de Pourtalès, a luxury residence in the quiet and high-end Eighth Arrondissement of Paris where she was staying during Fashion Week. Kardashian was alone and falling asleep - a friend was downstairs - when she heard the sound of footsteps stomping up toward her. She started calling out, “but no one answered me.”

A few men who she assumed to be police officers came into her room with a handcuffed man she recognized as the concierge from downstairs. “I was very confused when they first walked in.”

Using the concierge to translate from French, the robbers demanded her ring and started looking for jewelry, she said. As they tied her hands with a zip tie, “I just looked at the concierge and would say to him, ‘What’s going to happen? Are we going to die? I have babies, please translate for them. … I have to make it home for my babies.”

As she panicked, one of the robbers tried to calm her, saying “shhh” and “you okay” in English.

She said another man pulled her toward him on the bed and her robe rode up so she was partially exposed. She tried to “mentally prepare myself” because she was certain she would be raped. But he ended up closing her legs and tying them up with tape and a zip tie.

“I was certain … it was over,” Kardashian said. “So I said a prayer for my family, and for my sister and my best friend that were going to walk in, that they would have an okay life after seeing what they saw. That I would be dead on the bed and [Kourtney] would walk in and I would be shot dead on the bed and she would have that memory forever.”

But instead, the men left. The total estimated value of the stolen jewelry was between $6 and $10 million, according to local news reports. It has not been recovered, except for one piece: a diamond and platinum cross pendant that one of the robbers dropped as they were fleeing the scene, and that a passerby found in a gutter the next day and brought to police, local media reported. Investigators believe the rest of the jewelry was sold in Antwerp, Belgium, the AP reported.

The incident was one of the most spectacular robberies in recent French history and attracted intense media attention because of Kardashian’s involvement.

The case also attracted attention in France because of the unusual profile of the suspects: Nicknamed the “Grandpa Robbers” in the French press, several of them are in their 60s and 70s and have criminal records, including for bank robberies. Two have admitted responsibility: Aomar Aït Khedache, 69, apologized to Kardashian in a letter from jail, while another, 71-year-old Yunice Abbas, co-wrote a book titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian.” Others have denied the charges.

Police recovered DNA evidence at the scene linking Khedache and Abbas to the robbery, according to the AP. Prosecutors said the other defendants - Didier Dubreucq, François Delaporte, Gary Madar, Pierre Bouianere, Marc-Alexandre Boyer, Marceau Baum-Gertner and Christiane Glotin - helped to facilitate the heist in various ways.

Gabriel Dumenil, a lawyer representing Abbas, said in a statement that his client “has acknowledged his involvement in the events of October 3, 2016” and wants to “take responsibility.” “He has been waiting for this trial for many years. He eagerly awaits the moment when he can apologize directly to the victims and tell them his truth,” Dumenil said.

Lawyers for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post or could not be identified.

Abderrahmane Ouatiki, 48, the night watchman at the hotel where Kardashian was robbed, told The Post after the star’s testimony that he thought she was “very confused, and it shows.”

“There’s a kind of contradiction between her statements,” he said. “It’s difficult to piece together a puzzle from memory.”

Ouatiki said he stepped in voluntarily that night to translate the robbers’ demands from French to English so that Kardashian could understand, because he saw “the tension rising due to the lack of understanding between the two sides.”

In her testimony, Kardashian was asked about comments she made previously to prosecutors that implied she thought Ouatiki may have been in cahoots with the robbers. On the stand Tuesday, she said that with hindsight, she now understood why he might have been quiet or not have had answers in the moment, but said that “his lack of hysteria made me question everything.”

Kardashian has spoken about the experience before, saying it continues to affect her. In her testimony, she said that the experience “really changed everything for us” in terms of security and travel. “It wasn’t something I always felt I needed until this trip.”

“Paris was always a city that I loved so much,” Kardashian said, adding that before the robbery she always “felt very safe” walking around the city at night. “It was a magical place.”