Prosecutors urged a French court on Wednesday, May 21, to hand a 10-year prison sentence to the main suspect in the 2016 robbery of US celebrity Kim Kardashian in a Paris hotel, after a trial that saw the influencer testify. The reality TV star said, in a massively followed court appearance last week, that she feared she would be killed by the masked men who robbed her, at gunpoint, of some $10 million in jewellery in her hotel room, in the early hours of October 3, 2016. However, she also expressed her forgiveness despite the "trauma," as most of the suspects are now in their 60s and 70s, and have been dubbed the "Grandpa robbers" by French media outlets.
"I know, just as you do, that among the 10 accused, eight proclaim their innocence," prosecutor Anne-Dominique Merville told the court on Wednesday. "Yet my firm conviction is that they are all guilty." "They were masked, wearing gloves, they were going to sequester her and tie her up. They have no empathy for Kim Kardashian, for the receptionist," she said.
She requested that the alleged mastermind behind the robbery – Aomar Aït Khedache – be sentenced to 10 years in prison. He has admitted to tying up Kardashian, but denies being the ringleader of the robbery. Khedache, 69, "gave orders," recruited others, and travelled to Belgium to sell the jewellery, according to the prosecutor who was due to give sentencing requests for the other suspects later on Wednesday.
The attackers threatened Kardashian with a gun, tied her up and taped her mouth. They made off with valuables, most of which have never been recovered, including a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, valued at €3.5 million ($3.9 million).
None of the accused are currently in detention and whatever the verdict issued by the court – expected to be announced on Friday – they are, above all, seeking to avoid going back to jail. The charges of armed robbery and kidnapping meant some of the accused could face up to 30 years in prison. The prosecution was not expected to ask for terms anything close to this, but could demand that some of the accused be immediately placed in custody, due to the seriousness of the robbery.
The court will also have to take into account the fact that several key defendants are already ailing. Yunice Abbas, 71, who wrote a controversial book about the robbery and had already undergone heart surgery while in pretrial detention, suffers from Parkinson's disease. Aït Khedache, meanwhile, is completely deaf and virtually mute, suffering from a condition that requires him to go to the bathroom every hour, slowly leaning on a cane.