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6 hours ago
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A 71-year-old man who has said he played a bit part in a jewellery heist in which Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in 2016 has said he “totally regretted” having participated.
Yunice Abbas is one of 10 people on trial in Paris for having taken part in the robbery on the night of 2-3 October.
He said he had remained in a Paris hotel lobby on the lookout while two other suspects stormed into the US celebrity’s room, tied her up and made away with $10m (£7.5m) worth of her jewels.
Abbas sought to capitalise on the crime by publishing his version of events in a 2021 book titled I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian. On Tuesday a prosecutor held up a copy of the book in court, and the presiding judge asked the author why he had bragged about the theft.
Sitting in the dock in a short-sleeved check shirt, Abbas shook his head vigorously. “It makes me very uneasy,” he said, adding that he “totally regretted” taking part in the theft.
Abbas said he had arrived at the scene of the robbery on a bicycle and left by the same means, dropping a bag of stolen items as he fled. He picked it up but missed a diamond necklace, the only item that police were able to retrieve from the holdup.
Abbas told the hearing on Tuesday that stealing from Kardashian had been one job “too many” and that it had “opened his eyes” to his wrongdoing.
The defendant, who now has Parkinson’s disease, held his right hand over his left placed on his heart throughout the court session. He said it was to stop it from racing when he became anxious.
The presiding judge on Tuesday reviewed the accused’s criminal past.
He listed, among others, a conviction for fake number plates for carrying out robberies, another for equipping cars with secret compartments to hide cannabis and a third for armed robbery in which Abbas held a gun.
Between, he worked as a car mechanic. Abbas said that he had had “moments of weakness” when he needed money. “I fell back on things that I thought were easy shortcuts but only ended up complicating my life,” he said.
Abbas, like all other nine defendants, is not in custody.
Kardashian, 44, is due to testify on 13 May.
Those on trial – nine men and a woman – are mainly in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames such as Old Omar and Blue Eyes.
But the lawyer for one of the victims on Monday was eager to dispel the image of “kind old men” on trial for the robbery during Paris fashion week.
Henri de Beauregard, who represents the night receptionist forced to accompany the robbers to Kardashian’s room, said the public must not fall for the “myth of friendly, Robin Hood-style pensioners”.
