00:00The shocking 2016 robbery of Kim Kardashian in a Paris hotel is finally going to trial nearly 9 years later.
00:07In what has been called the biggest theft of an individual in France in 20 years,
00:11Kardashian was robbed of some 10 million dollars worth of jewelry.
00:15Several of the people involved had long been known in the French criminal underworld.
00:19Aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the crime, they were dubbed the grandpa robbers.
00:25There is no doubt that this narrative is about the sympathetic baby-breaker Robin Desbois.
00:32It's not the people that our client had in front of him this day.
00:36Nine men and one woman are being tried in connection to the robbery.
00:40One of the accused described the events of that night to AFP in 2021.
00:44I would like to ask if it was interesting to enter into this story.
00:48After all the hesitation, the idea ends up doing its path.
00:52Because we don't think we're more capable.
00:54If I'm too old, I can't do it.
00:56Do I have a sense of fear?
00:59And at some point, we believe.
01:01And then I said, no, no, no, no.
01:03I was able to do it.
01:04I took the challenge and I did it.
01:06But if you do it, if you regret it, I regret it right away.
01:09Some four years after the robbery,
01:11Abbas controversially wrote a book on the events of that night,
01:14seemingly seeking to capitalize on the heist.
01:16The book was titled, I kidnapped Kim Kardashian,
01:19despite claiming to have just been one of the lookouts.
01:21When I was out of the building, I was walking with a police patrol.
01:29My colleagues were already left.
01:31And I was the last one.
01:32I closed the door and they looked at me.
01:35I made a little sign like that.
01:37I said, hello.
01:38They did a round, all of a sudden.
01:41Well, of course, I wasn't at my pace.
01:44But I gave a serenity.
01:46I tried to do it.
01:48It worked.
01:49The grandpa robbers are accused of threatening Kardashian with a gun to her head
01:53before tying her up to her bed and gagging her.
01:56Meanwhile, three men kept watching at reception,
01:58with another waiting at the wheel of a getaway car.
02:01The entire robbery lasted around 10 minutes.
02:04Most of the pieces, including a gold Rolex and nearly 19-carat diamond ring gifted to Kardashian by her then-husband Kanye West, now legally known as Yeh, were never found.
02:17But police did recover a diamond-encrusted cross that Abbas dropped while leaving the scene by bike.
02:34Abbas has no plans to contest the charges against him at trial.
02:38He also claims that he did not know who Kardashian was at the time of the heist.
02:47I've never done it all in my heart.
02:49I did it because I felt like I was supposed to do it.
02:52Because I had needs, because it didn't move from the other side.
02:56It's a solution that can seem to be a robbery at some point, but it's an illusion.
03:02It's hell.
03:03Abbas and the other suspects were arrested three months after the robbery through DNA evidence.
03:08All 12 were charged, with 10 currently on trial.
03:11One of the men died in March 2025, and another is expected to be tried separately for health reasons.
03:18Kim Kardashian is expected to testify on the 13th of May.
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