PARIS (AP) — A Paris court on Friday found the ringleader and seven other people guilty in the 2016 armed robbery of Kim Kardashian, but did not impose any additional time behind bars for their roles in what the U.S. celebrity described as “the most terrifying experience of my life."
The chief judge, David De Pas, said that the defendants' ages — six are in their 60s and 70s — and their health issues weighed on the court’s decision to impose sentences that he said “aren’t very severe.”
He said that the nine years between the robbery and the trial — long even by the standards of France’s famously deliberate legal system — were also taken into account in not imposing harsher sentences. The court acquitted two of the 10 defendants.
Aomar Aït Khedache, 69, the ringleader, got the stiffest sentence, eight years imprisonment but five of those were suspended. Three others got seven years, five of them suspended. Three more got prison sentences ranging from five to three years, mostly or completely suspended, and an eighth person was found guilty on a weapons charge and fined.
With time already served in pretrial detention, none of those found guilty will go to prison and all walked out free. The trial was heard by a three-judge panel and six jurors.
Still, the chief judge said that Kardashian had been traumatized by the Oct. 2, 2016, jewel heist in her hotel during Fashion Week.
“You caused harm,” the judge said. “You caused fear.”
Kardashian, who wasn't present for the verdict, said in a statement issued afterward that she was “deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.”
“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," said the celebrity who is working to become a lawyer.
A separate statement from her legal team said that “Kim appreciates the court’s decision."
“It has been a long journey from that terrible night,” it said. “She looks forward to putting this tragic episode behind her.”
Khedache's walking stick clicked on the courthouse's marble floors as he walked out free. His DNA, found on the bands used to bind Kardashian, was a breakthrough that helped crack open the case.
Wiretaps captured 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. The men made off with more than $6 million in jewelry, including a diamond ring she’d worn that night to a Givenchy show. They also took a watch her late father had given her when she graduated high school.
Two of the robbers, dressed as police, forced their way into her suite in the glamorous Hôtel de Pourtalès and bound Kardashian with zip ties and tape.
The theft subsequently forced celebrities to rethink how they live and protect themselves.
Because of their ages, the accused became known in France as “les papys braqueurs,” or the grandpa robbers. They faced charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association.
Paris was once a sanctuary for Kardashian
Kardashian’s testimony earlier this month was the trial's emotional high point. In a packed courtroom, she recounted how she was thrown onto a bed and had a gun pressed to her.
“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she said. She said she pleaded: "I have babies. I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”
She was dragged into a marble bathroom and told to stay silent. When the robbers fled, she freed herself by scraping the tape on her wrists off against the sink, then hid with her friend, shaking and barefoot.
She said that Paris had once been her sanctuary — a city she would wander at 3 a.m., window shopping, stopping for hot chocolate. That illusion was shattered.
Forgiveness
Khedache's lawyer pleaded for clemency, pointing to one of the trial’s most visceral moments — when he and Kardashian came face to face during her testimony.
“She listened to the letter he had written to her, and then she forgave him,” lawyer Franck Berton told The Associated Press.
Kardashian, typically shielded by security and spectacle, had locked eyes with Khedache as the letter was read aloud.
“I do appreciate the letter, I forgive you,” she said. “But it doesn’t change the feelings and the trauma and the fact that my life was forever changed.”
Khedache on Friday asked for “a thousand pardons,” communicated via a written note in court. Other defendants also used their final words to express remorse.
Privacy became luxury
The robbery echoed beyond the City of Light. It forced a recalibration of celebrity behavior in the age of Instagram. For years, Kardashian had curated her life like a showroom: geo-tagged, diamond-lit, public by design. But this was the moment the showroom turned into a crime scene. In her words, “People were watching … They knew where I was.”
Afterward, she stopped posting her location in real time. She stripped her social media feed of lavish gifts. Other stars followed suit.
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Mallika Sen in New York and Catherine Gaschka contributed to this report.
John Leicester And Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press
