Kim Kardashian, the reality TV star and entrepreneur, is expected to testify on Tuesday before the Paris Court, where she will face the so-called “grandfather thieves” who are accused of having stolen her in the French capital almost a decade.
Ms. Kardashian should explain how she was gagged, linked to band and zip ties, and stolen under the threat of a firearm in a residence she rented during the Paris Fashion Week in October 2016.
Ms. Kardashian, 44, described in preceding interviews the trauma she suffered when men disguised as police officers and bearing hoods burst into the property and stole valuables, including a diamond engagement ring of $ 4 million.
But her appearance before the court will mark Tuesday the only time she should take the position and face the men accused of having stolen her.
From Dawn, dozens of journalists and curious spectators hoping to have an overview of Ms. Kardashian had lined up to enter the courtroom to sit in the public gallery. Under French law, cameras are not authorized in court.
Theo Chbouki, an 18-year-old fashion student in the line, said that it was the first time that his participation in a criminal trial and that he was curious to see Ms. Kardashian in a real “serious” setting, without the brilliant veneer of social media or reality TV.
“It’s emblematic to see Kim Kardashian during a trial in Paris,” he said.
Several of the accused of the trial – nine men and a woman – are in the sixties and the 1970s, and were described by prosecutors as career criminals.
Some have been accused of armed robbery in an organized gang, kidnapping and other charges. Others have been accused of less complicity or charges. The trial, which will be decided by three judges and a jury of six people, should last until the end of May.
Most accused have denied participation in theft. At the time, stolen jewelry was estimated at least 8 million euros, or more than $ 9 million.
“I think that moment has changed her life forever,” said Simone Harouche, a friend of Mrs. Kardashian on Tuesday who was her fashion stylist at the time.
Harouche testified that Ms. Kardashian had improved her private security after the flight and had changed her habits on social networks, where she has hundreds of millions of followers. Prosecutors think that thieves targeted Ms. Kardashian because she had displayed some of her online jewelry.
“Nothing that she publishes is no longer in real time,” said Harouche.
Ms. Harouche was the only other person in the residence with the reality star that evening, and remembered falling asleep in the evening until she was surprised by Mrs. Kardashian, shouting that she had children and that she wanted to live.
“It was a sound that I had never heard of Kim – it was terror,” said Ms. Harouche, whose room was a floor below Mrs. Kardashian. She recalled how distraught celebrity jumped on the stairs, her ankles attached with a band, once the thieves.
“She was out of her,” added Ms. Harouche. “I have never seen her like that before.”
Investigators found DNA on the adhesive tape and zipped bonds that were used to link Ms. Kardashian’s hands and feet, and the police arrested several suspects after three months of electronic listening and surveillance.
