Kim Kardashian to appear in court as witness in Paris burglary case

By Laura Gozzi, BBC News, May 13: Kim Kardashian is due to appear in court in Paris later today as a witness in a burglary case dating back to 2016, when she was held up at gunpoint and had millions of dollars' worth of jewellery taken from her.

The reality TV star and business woman, 44, is expected to take the stand in the afternoon to give her version of events of the burglary, which saw her tied up and held at gunpoint in a luxury suite where she was staying during Paris Fashion Week.

Jewels worth millions of dollars were taken from her, including a $4m (£2.9m) diamond engagement from then-husband Kanye West.

Ten people are on trial, which began last month.

On Monday, witness Abderrahmane Ouatiki, the night receptionist who says he was marched up to Kardashian's hotel suite and made to translate the burglars' demands, said the American star was "completely hysterical" and "in a state of complete terror" as a "very nervous" man pointed a gun at her.

"He was very aggressive and she was utterly terrified," said Ouatiki.

He added he too had feared for his life as the burglar was acting erratic and was clearly irritated by Kardashian's screaming.

Three people reportedly kept watch in the reception of the exclusive Hotel de Pourtalès in central Paris while two other men forced Ouatiki to take them to Kardashian's suite, where they demanded she give him the ring and also stole other jewels for a total of $9m.

The men were arrested three months later alongside several other people thought to be accessories to the crime.

Twelve were eventually due to appear in court, although one died in March and another has been excused due to health reasons. Of the remaining 10, all but two deny any involvement in the burglary. The jewels were never found but police think they were broken up and sold on.

French media have dubbed the defendants the "grandpa robbers" as several are in their 70s. Many also have serious health problems. One is undergoing chemotherapy, while another had visible tremors.

The alleged ringleader, Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, was questioned last week but is deaf and mute and had to write his answers down with a pen and paper which were projected on to a screen.

Since the trial opened on 28 April, prosecutors have sought to dispel the image of hapless elderly burglars – who reportedly did not know their victims was a hugely famous celebrity.

"They may have made mistakes but they were still a decent team," said the lead investigator of the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme (Banditry Repression Brigade) special unit last week.

He noted that the burglars tied up Kardashian's feet and ankles with cable ties and stuck tape on her mouth, and they took a car to park near the scene of the crime and used burner phones.

"That was well done," he said. "They pulled it off, because they managed to flog the goods and palm off a $4m ring in Antwerp, which isn't that easy," he added.

In his testimony, Ouatiki also painted a frightening picture of one of the burglars who he said was wielding a gun and was "stressed and shouting… You feel that's someone that can be very dangerous."

Ouatiki acted as an interpreter between the man and Kardashian and said he did his best to "calm things down as I didn't know what he was capable of".

When the burglars tied up Kardashian and took her to the bathroom, she was only wearing a bathrobe and the belt came undone, the court heard. Asked by Kardashian's lawyer Léonore Hennerick to describe the moment, Ouatiki declined to go into detail. "You have to respect the victim, I think," he said.

Referencing that moment in an emotional interview in 2020, Kardashian told American journalist David Letterman that she thought she was going to be sexually assaulted.

"I was like, 'Okay, this is the time I'm going to get raped'," she said.

She added that she feared for her life and that she was worried for her sister Khloe, who was out at a club: "I'm gonna be dead in the room and she's gonna be traumatised for the rest of her life."

Instead, the burglars grabbed her ring as well as various other jewels, phone and €1,000 in cash and ran off. Kardashian was quickly able to untie herself and her bodyguard arrived shortly after. She gave a statement to police in the early hours of 3 October and immediately flew back to the US.

For his part, Ouatiki – an Algerian national who at the time was a PhD student in semiotics – said he suffered greatly from speculation in the media that he may have been in on the heist.

"The suspicion was very heavy to bear," he told the court.

Ouatiki told French media he lost his student status shortly after the heist and had to go back to Algeria, where he was diagnosed with PTSD.

"It was a catastrophe, my life fell apart," he told Le Point.

On Tuesday morning, Simone Bretter, Kardashian's friend and stylist, will take the stand. She was staying in the same suite during the heist but was on a different floor and hid when she realised burglars had broken in.

Almost 500 journalists are accredited and Kardashian's testimony is set to attract huge media attention.

"Testifying will allow her to reclaim agency in this situation and rewrite the ending," said Jeetendr Sehdev, celebrity expert and the author of The Kim Kardashian Principle.

"In 2016 she was the punchline. But in 2025 testifying is going to turn her into the narrator," he told the BBC.