Kim Kardashian thought she “was going to die” during the armed robbery of Paris

Kim Kardashian gave emotional testimonials to a court in Paris and told judges that she thought she would die from masked armed men who stole millions of dollars of jewelry from her in a luxury hotel suite in 2016.

The reality TV star and businesswoman – who was bound and had kept a gun on her head during the test – stood for the first time to her alleged attackers, while proving in the case.

Nine men and one woman are tried for the armed burglary of £ 10 million (£ 7.55 million) of jewelry, including a diamond engagement ring from her ex-husband Kanye West.

Kardashian, who gave a testimony in a chair in front of the BBC, spoke more than three hours before the court on Tuesday.

Her evidence was sometimes interrupted by apologies from two defendants.

After one of the defendants, Aomar Ait Khedache, 71, sitting meters of Kardashian in court expressed his regret, she turned to him and said she forgot him.

Referring to her activism in the US to improve the legal system and her dreams to become a lawyer, she thanked Khedache for his apologetic letter.

“I appreciate it, I forgive you,” she told him in the stands, while she cried.

“But it does not change the emotion, the feelings and the trauma and the way my life has changed.”

“I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for the fact that I was able to testify today and tell my truth,” the TV star told the court that was full of media on Tuesday.

The crime trial More than nine years ago was long -term and closely followed by press.

Kardashian wore a tailor -made black suit and diamond jewelry and was supported in court by her mother, Kris Jenner, various friends and a crowd of bodyguards.

She occasionally faltered in her first hour of witness, fiddling with her long nails and paused when she was overwhelmed by emotion and fighting tears. However, she seemed to relax and collect strength as she continued, her voice became more stable.

She also expressed forgiveness for one of the defendants who apologized for her during her witness.

Tuesday’s session in court was the first time that Kardashian had passed on her report of the armed burglary to a criminal court and the size of her fears during and after the attack.

She told how she had been in the city for the Paris Fashion Week on 2 October and was retired for the night around 3:00 am when two masked armed men wore police uniforms, collapsed her room and dragged the receptionist of the hotel who bound and gag.

She managed to call her bodyguard before one of the men then took her phone from her. She grabbed her engagement ring on the bedside table, and then “grabbed me from the bed and grabbed me and picked me up” to look for more jewelry, “she said.

One of the men held a gun at the moment, and “That was the first moment I thought, I have to run for it? But it wasn’t an option, so I just stayed,” she said, adding that she realized that she just had to do “what they say” for her safety.

Kardashian said she was then thrown on the bed and her hands tied with zip tires. At this point she said to the caretaker: “Please translate that I have babies, I have to make it at home.”

One of the men then pulled her to him, who opened her robe, including she wore nothing.

She told the court that she was afraid that she would be raped and said she said a prayer to prepare herself mentally.

But then her legs were tied together and a gun is aimed at her. At that moment she said, “I was sure they would shoot me that.”

At that time she thought of her family and offered them a “prayer” that they should not experience her murder.

She expressed fear of her sister, Kourtney, who had to walk into the hotel room to find that “I would be shot at the bed and she would see that and have that memory forever.”

When asked by the judge David de Pas if she thought she would die, she answered with a small voice: “I definitely thought I would die.”

Kardashian said she looked in the eyes of the man who taught her to try to remember details – and that he told her that if she would stay still, she would be okay.

After the robbers took the jewelry, they ran out of the suite and left Kardashian in the bathroom. She said that she then managed to free her hands from the cable tires and jump down the stairs to the first floor of the suite, where her stylist and friend Simone Harouche helped to release the other tires.

The two then ran the balcony where they called for help while hiding in the bushes. Kardashian said she was worried that the men would return, and that when the Paris police appeared, she could not trust them because the robbers had also worn police uniforms.

During the testimony in the wrapped courtroom, Kardashian also answered various questions from the judge about why her safety was not present at that time.

Her usual team was sent to accompany her sister Kourtney to the club while Kim had stayed.

She told the court that she had no bodyguard with her, because she had not believed that they needed that level of security until the robbery. She said that she had always felt safe to go alone in the streets of Paris, and that they had been at ease to stay their security team in another hotel.

“Everything changed” after Paris, she said, and noticed that she employs up to six people to guard her house at night now, and that she started to get a “phobia of going” “because they thought people would” see me and know that my house was empty “.

“I can’t even sleep at night if I know there is no more security,” she said, and noted her concern about Copycat attacks, and that her house in Los Angeles was robbed before the family returned from the trip to Paris.

Kardashian’s witness on Tuesday was interrupted on various points by offers from apologies from two of the defendants in the courtroom, who have argued guilty of the indictment. Although she accepted Khedache’s apology, she did not acknowledge the presence of the other defendants who dispute the charges.

She ignored her former driver Gary Madar, who is accused of having tipped the burglary ring about her place of residence. He has denied the charges.

She also expressed anger about one of the defendants who has argued guilty, Yunice Abbas, who published a memoir in 2021 prior to the trial entitled “I held Kim Kardashian”.

Kardashian told the court on Tuesday that she was “really shocked when I saw that there was a book”.

“He did not do this alone, but now (he) earns money with that – my jewelry, my memories, the guard my father died, gave me when I graduated in high school. I can’t get that back.”

She also told the court that she wanted to conclude the procedure of the process.

“I wanted to be part of today because in this case I am a victim and it is the first time I can really hear and follow from everyone,” she said.

“This is what I do. I want to become a lawyer and I believe that everyone has the chance to speak their truth, and this is my closure and my chance to let this rest after everything I have experienced.”

Kardashian added that her task is “to tell my truth and hope that this will happen to no one else”.

“It was frightening and changing life and I wish that kind of fear on no one – to think that you could be killed or raped – I wouldn’t want that on my worst enemy.”