(23 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Paris - 23 May 2025
1. Defendant, Aomar Aït Khedache (hiding his face) arriving, walking with a stick
2. Various of defendants (all hiding their face) and lawyers arriving
3. Abderrahmane Ouatiki, concierge who was handcuffed during the robbery, arriving
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Abderrahmane Ouatiki, concierge
“(I attended the trial) with a lot of observation and curiosity and now it’s the end. I came for the truth. I didn’t really find it. There were layers of lies and ‘small truth elements’. We are waiting for the verdict. I hope it will be fine.”
5. Various shots of defendants (all hiding their face) and lawyers leaving
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Franck Berton, lawyer representing Aomar Aït Khedache:
"The man we are defending is elderly, ill, and after having acknowledged the facts, he was forgiven by Kim Kardashian. We are at his trial; she looked at him when she came, she listened to the letter he had written to her, and then she forgave him. So, will the jurors go beyond what she ultimately asks for? We don't hope for that, meaning we don't hope that he will be incarcerated this evening."
7. Policemen leaving
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Franck Berton, lawyer representing Aomar Aït Khedache:
"He is a man who is afraid. He is afraid for himself. And then he is also afraid for his son because, you know, his son is in the dock, accused of knowingly being the driver, while he and his father claim that he was not aware and did not know where he was driving his father. So, there is a double issue. There is an issue for himself. And then there is an issue for his son, so it is a double decision they are waiting for. And once again, we are filled with hope, hoping that there will be no incarceration tonight and that the handcuffs will not echo in this courtroom."
9. Various exteriors of Paris tribunal
STORYLINE:
The robbery was over in minutes, the fallout long: Nearly a decade after robbers stormed Kim Kardashian's luxury residence and tied her up at gunpoint, a Paris court will decide the verdict Friday in one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history.
Nine men and a woman stand accused of carrying out — or aiding — the crime during the 2016 Fashion Week, when masked men dressed as police entered Kardashian's luxury Paris residence, bound her with zip-ties and vanished with $6 million in jewels.
After delivering final statements in court, the defendants were dismissed Friday morning, with a verdict expected later in the day.
At the heart of the trial is 70-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache, the alleged ringleader and a veteran of Paris’ criminal underworld.
Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence. His DNA, found on the zip-ties used to bind Kardashian, cracked open the case.
Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices, and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium.
The loot was never found.
Khedache claims he was only a foot soldier. He blamed a mysterious “X” or “Ben" — someone prosecutors say never existed.
Khedache asked for “a thousand pardons,” communicated via a written note, according to French media.
Other defendants also used their final words to express remorse.
The accused became known in France as “les papys braqueurs” — the grandpa robbers.
Some arrived in court in orthopedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. Some read the proceedings from a screen, hard of hearing and nearly mute.
But prosecutors warned observers not to be seduced by soft appearances.
The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association.
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