Kim Kardashian robbery trial: 8 of 10 defendants found guilty
Kim Kardashian exits the trial at the Palais de Justice on May 13, 2025 in Paris, France. Edward Berthelot/GC Images
Eight defendants were convicted of crimes connected to the 2016 robbery of reality TV star Kim Kardashian nearly 10 years after the high-profile heist.
According to NBC News, two of the 10 defendants were acquitted on charges of planning and carrying out the armed robbery during Paris Fashion Week nine years ago.
A court in the French capital decided the verdict in the trial of the “grandpa robbers” accused of stealing millions of dollars of Kardashian’s jewelry.
The robbery was considered the biggest heist targeting an individual that Paris had seen in decades. The jury of six citizens conducted the trial, along with three magistrates — a procedure in France reserved for the most serious crimes.
The panel of three judges and six jurors needed a majority vote of seven to reach a decision. Kardashian wasn’t present Friday for the verdict, which was reached shortly after 8 p.m. local time or 2 p.m. ET.
Nine men and a woman stood accused of carrying out or aiding the crime, when the robbers, dressed as police, forced their way into the glamorous hotel de pourtales, bound Kardashian with zip ties and escaped with $6 million worth of her jewelry.
After delivering final statements in court, the defendants were dismissed Friday morning, with a verdict finally being delivered by the afternoon.
Aomar Aït Khedache, the alleged ringleader, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment but five of those are suspended.
Three others who were accused on the most serious charges got seven years, five of them suspended. With time already served in pretrial detention, none of those found guilty will go to prison, according to The Associated Press.
Defendant Aomar Aït Khedache is seen outside the Palais De Justice on April 28, 2025 in Paris, France. Pierre Suu/Getty Images
Kardashian issued a statement after the ruling was announced.
“I am deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case,” she said. “The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family. While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system.”
Khardache’s DNA, found on the bands used to bind Kardashian, was a key breakthrough that helped crack open the case. Wiretaps capture him giving orders, recruiting accomplices and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium. A diamond-encrusted cross, dropped during the escape, was the only piece of jewelry ever recovered.
Khedache said he was only a foot soldier. He blamed a mysterious “X” or “Ben” — someone prosecutors say never existed. His lawyer pleaded for clemency, pointing to one of the trial’s most visceral moments — Kardashian’s earlier courtroom encounter with the man accused of orchestrating her ordeal.
“She looked at him when she came, she listened to the letter he had written to her, and then she forgave him,” lawyer Franck Berton told The Associated Press.
“I do appreciate the letter, I forgive you,” Kardashian told Khedache. “But it doesn’t change the feelings and the trauma and the fact that my life was forever changed.”
Kardashian testified on May 13 in a packed Paris courthouse and told the jury that she thought she was going to be sexually assaulted during the 2016 heist.
“I was certain that was the moment that he was going to rape me,” she told a Paris court Tuesday. “I absolutely did think I was going to die.”
Kardashian, who was tearful at times, said she was getting ready for bed when she heard loud footsteps ascending the stairs to her hotel room, telling the court that at first she thought it was her sister Kourtney and a friend returning from a Paris Fashion Week event in the early hours of Oct. 3.
She recalled calling out to ask who was there before masked men entered the room.
I obviously was very confused. I had to make sense of what was happening. I was just about to fall asleep, naked with a robe on,” she told the court.
“Honestly, a lot of terrorist attacks were happening in the world, and I thought it was some sort of terrorist attack, and I didn’t immediately understand it was for my jewelry.”
This court sketch made on May 13, 2025 in Paris shows US celebrity Kim Kardashian (C), next to co-accused Aomar Ait Khedache, testifying before the Assize Court for the trial over the 2016 robbery. AFP) (Photo by BENOIT PEYRUCQ/AFP via Getty Images
She said the suspects arrived at her hotel dressed as police officers and held the concierge hostage. He was dragged into her room, handcuffed, according to Kardashian.
One attacker began gesturing at her diamond ring.
“He said, ‘Ring! Ring!’ and he pointed to his hand,” she recalled.
Kardashian grabbed her phone to call the police, but didn’t know the French emergency number. She then tried to contact her sister and bodyguard, but was stopped by one of the masked assailants.
The men dragged her to the bathroom, she said, where they taped her mouth and told her she would not be harmed as long as she did not make any noise. She recalled being handled aggressively by the suspects, but said they did not hit her.
“I was not hit. No, I was grabbed, and dragged into the other room, and thrown onto the floor, but wasn’t hit, no,” she told the court.
