Reality star, Kim Kardashian will reportedly testify at the trial of a Parisian underground gang accused of orchestrating her 2016 robbery in Paris.
The heist, which took place during Paris Fashion Week, involved armed robbers breaking into Kardashian’s rented apartment, binding and gagging her at gunpoint before stealing $10 million in jewelry, including a ring reportedly worth $4 million.
According to TMZ, French authorities spent five years investigating before ordering the case to trial in 2021, and now, nearly a decade later, proceedings are beginning.
While Kim has previously detailed the events to a judge, this will be her first time recounting the terrifying incident before a jury, where twelve individuals are on trial.
“They ask for money. I said I don’t have any money,” Kim told her sisters in a 2017 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, per People. “They dragged me out onto the hallway on top of the stairs. That’s when I saw the gun clear, like clear as day. I was kind of looking at the gun, looking down back at the stairs.”
She continued, “I was like; ‘I have a split second in my mind to make this quick decision. Am I going to run down the stairs and either be shot in the back? It makes me so upset to think about it. Either they’re going to shoot me in the back, or if I make it and they don’t, if the elevator does not open in time, or the stairs are locked, then, like, I’m fucked. There’s no way out.”
A source told the magazine Kim “managed to squeeze her hands out” of the plastic ties around her wrists “by wriggling her hands,” with another source saying she “screamed from the balcony” for help after she broke free.
According to People, 17 individuals were arrested across France in connection with the robbery three months later. Seven were later released, while four were indicted shortly after. Charges were handed down to the remaining six suspects that same month.
“I know this sounds crazy, but I know that was meant to happen to me,” Kim told Ellen DeGeneres in 2017 about the impact the incident had on her. “I really feel like things happen in your life to teach you things … It was probably no secret, and you see it on the show—I was being flashy and I was definitely materialistic before.”
She continued, “Not that there’s anything with having things and working hard to get those things—and I’m really proud of, you know, everyone around me that’s successful. But like, I’m so happy that my kids get this me and that this is who I’m raising my kids ‘cuz I just don’t care about that stuff anymore. I really don’t.”
