PARIS: The robbery was over in minutes, the fallout long: Nearly a decade after robbers stormed Kim Kardashian's luxury residence and tied her up at gunpoint, a Paris court will decide the verdict Friday in one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history.
Nine men and a woman stand accused of carrying out - or aiding - the crime during the 2016 Fashion Week, when masked men dressed as police entered Kardashian's luxury Paris residence, bound her with zip-ties and vanished with $6 million in jewels.
After delivering final statements in court, the defendants were dismissed Friday morning, with a verdict expected later in the day.
At the heart of the trial is 70-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, the alleged ringleader and a veteran of Paris' criminal underworld. Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence. His DNA, found on the zip-ties used to bind Kardashian, cracked open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices, and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium. The loot was never found.
Khedache claims he was only a foot soldier. He blamed a mysterious "X" or "Ben" - someone prosecutors say never existed. Khedache asked for "a thousand pardons," communicated via a written note, according to French media. Other defendants also used their final words to express remorse.
The accused became known in France as "les papys braqueurs" - the grandpa robbers. Some arrived in court in orthopedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. Some read the proceedings from a screen, hard of hearing and nearly mute. But prosecutors warned observers not to be seduced by soft appearances.
The trial is being heard by a panel of three judges and six jurors, who will need a majority vote to reach a decision.
The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
Kardashian's testimony earlier this month was the emotional high point. In a packed courtroom, she recounted how she was thrown onto a bed, zip-tied, and had a gun pressed to her on the night of Oct. 2, 2016.
"I absolutely did think I was going to die," she said. "I have babies. I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home."
She was dragged into a marble bathroom and told to stay silent. When the robbers fled, she freed herself by scraping the tape on her wrists off against the sink, then she hid with her friend, shaking and barefoot.
She said Paris had once been her sanctuary - a city she would wander at 3 a.m., window shopping, stopping for hot chocolate. That illusion was shattered.
The robbery echoed far beyond the City of Light. It forced a recalibration of celebrity behavior in the digital age. For years, Kardashian had curated her life like a showroom: geo-tagged, diamond-lit, public by design. But this was the moment the showroom turned into a crime scene. In her words, "People were watching... They knew where I was."
Afterward, she stopped posting her location in real time. She stripped her social media feed of lavish gifts and vanished from Paris for years. Other stars followed suit. Privacy became luxury.
Defense attorneys have asked the court for leniency, citing the defendants' age and health. But prosecutors insist that criminal experience, not frailty, defined the gang.
Even for France's painstakingly thorough legal system, observers commented about how long it took for the case to be tried.
Kardashian, who once said "this experience really changed everything," hopes the verdict will offer a measure of closure.
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