Kim Kardashian trial: Star faces ‘grandpa gang’ over 2016 gunpoint robbery in Paris

The billionaire business woman will be in court tomorrow

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Kim Kardashian has said she feared she was going to die in the robbery. Photograph: Aurore Marechal/PA
Kim Kardashian has said she feared she was going to die in the robbery. Photograph: Aurore Marechal/PA

A group of men dubbed the “grandpa gang” are among 10 suspects on trial in Paris on charges of robbing reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian at gunpoint and stealing jewellery worth millions of euros during Paris Fashion Week in 2016.

The billionaire business woman will be in court tomorrow.

The trial has already heard details of the night, how at 3am, the suspects wearing ski masks and clothes with police markings, tied up the billionaire celebrity before making off with a €4 million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye), and other jewels.

A young concierge at the exclusive rental that Kardashian and her family were staying at, was also held at gunpoint.

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Nine men and one woman are being tried by the criminal court. Five of them – all men – face armed robbery and kidnapping charges and risk being sentenced to 30 years in jail. The others are charged with complicity in the heist or gun possession.

As the robbers escaped on foot or on bicycles, they lost some of the jewellery, including a cross with six diamonds, which a passerby found in the street and handed in to the police. But most of the jewels, including the ring, were never found.

Kim Kardashian robbery suspects to appear in Paris court as trial beginsOpens in new window ]

It has taken so long to come to court that one of the suspects is dead and another is too ill to be put on trial.

Saskya Vandoorne, a senior producer for CNN based in the network’s Paris bureau, explains.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast

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