‘Vovoto thieves’ face trial in Paris for theft of jewelry by Kim Kardashian

A group of men nicknamed “grandpa thieves” will be among the 10 people who will be judged next week, accused of stealing millions of dollars in jewelry by Kim Kardashian, which was kept under the gun in his apartment during Paris fashion week in 2016.

The reality show star will travel to Paris to give testimony against the defendants, including men in their 70s, in the trial that will last almost a month, his lawyer said.

The suspects, wearing skiing masks and clothing with police identifications, tied Kardashian in the luxury suite room before fleeing a $ 4 million engagement ring given to her by her then husband, rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye), and other jewelry, according to investigators.

The robbery left Kardashian, whose bodyguard accompanied his sister Kourtney to a nightclub nightclub, very shaken but unharmed.

“They screamed with me in French,” Kardashian recalled in an interview with David Letterman in 2020. “They kept saying ‘the ring, the ring.” “I kept looking at Concierge,” she said. “I thought, ‘Let’s die? Just tell them that I have children, that I have babies … I need to go home.'”

Kardashian’s legal team said she would not comment before the trial. “At this time, Mrs. Kardashian is preserving her statement to the court and the jury,” the team said. “She wants the trial to proceed orderly, according to the French law and with respect to all parties involved in the case.”

Diamond target

In total, 10 people will be judged by the Criminal Court. Five of them face accusations of armed theft and kidnapping. The others are accused of complicity in the theft or illegal possession of a weapon.

Investigators say that in the early hours of October 3, 2016, three men would have entered the building under the pretext of being police, threatening the concierge under the aim of a weapon. Two of them forced him to take them to the Kardashian suite.

The apartment block, with several secret entrances, was in a discreet building behind the city’s Madeleine church, often frequented by movie and music stars that paid up to 15,000 euros ($ 16,800) per night.

One of the accused, Yunice Abbas, 71, admitted her participation in theft. He told the French television channel TF1 that he was fighting to survive as a retired, having spent 20 years of his professional life in prison.

“The great job was to be the last one,” he said, adding that they told him that a great diamond was the target, but that he had no idea that he belonged to a famous billionaire.

The men fled by bicycle with an estimated $ 9 million money in stolen money. Abbas fell from the bike, losing some jewelry on the sidewalk.

Abbas lawyer, Gabriel Dumenil, told Reuters that his client immediately recognized his involvement in the robbery under interrogation. Abbas denies being the leader and did not know that weapons would be used, said his lawyer.

Traces of DNA found in plastic bands used to tie Kardashian’s wrists helped French police arrests in January of the following year.