Kardashian ready to 'confront' her Paris attackers in court: lawyers

Kim Kardashian is ready to "confront" her Paris attackers as the US celebrity prepares to testify in person next week at a trial over the armed robbery of millions of dollars of jewellery in 2016, her lawyers said on Monday.

In late April, 10 suspects went on trial in Paris over the 2016 robbery, which saw some $10 million worth of jewellery stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.

On the night of October 2-3, 2016, Kardashian, then 35, was robbed while staying at an exclusive hotel in central Paris. She was threatened with a gun to the head and tied up with her mouth taped up.

"She is committed to attending in person the trial and to confronting those who attacked her. She will do so with dignity and courage," her French lawyers Leonor Hennerick and Jonathan Mattout told AFP.

Kardashian, who has been keeping abreast of developments during the first week of the trial, is due to testify on May 13 in a court appearance certain to attract huge media attention.

The lawyers, who are representing Kardashian alongside her American counsel Michael Rhodes, declined to comment on the content of her upcoming testimony.

"We want to give everyone the opportunity to hear her testimony in her own words so we won't be commenting on the substance of what she will say," they said in a statement.

During what the French press has dubbed the "the heist of the century", masked men walked away from the Parisian hotel with millions of dollars worth of jewels, including a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West.

 DNA on duck tape  

The theft was the most valuable against a private individual in France in the past 20 years.

Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames like "Old Omar" and "Blue Eyes" that recall the old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s films noirs.

The court on Monday heard how police tracked down 68-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, known as "Old Omar", and several other suspects, after they found his DNA on duck tape used to tie up the US star.

"They're quite a team," said investigator Michel Malecot.

"But they committed some mistakes."

Khedache has admitted tying up Kardashian, but has disputed claims that he was the mastermind behind the robbery.

The investigator told the court that a team in an undercover van managed to snap pictures of Khedache and three other suspects in December 2016 as they were chatting, wrapped up in their winter coats on a Paris cafe terrace.

He told the judge that the four were meeting to share the spoils of the robbery.

He said this was shown by the fact Khedache, in a wiretapped conversation, invited one of them to Paris to pick up "the kids' present" after he and several others had made trips to Belgium, seemingly to sell the stolen jewellery.

He said the men at the cafe looked similar to those on security footage on the night of the robbery.

 Man flies off bike  

The courtroom watched that footage, which showed two suspects arrive on foot at the hotel and then leave, while three others wearing fluorescent jackets escaped on bicycles.

The audience saw a man who looked a lot like another suspect in the dock, 71-year-old Yunice Abbas, suddenly fall off his bicycle, dropping part of the loot, then scrambling to shove it all back in his bag.

Abbas wrote in a book about the heist that his bag had become caught in the bike wheel.

The investigator said a man called Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian's driver in Paris, had given the alleged gang a tip-off.

He said Madar went to the same bar as some of the other accused and told them Kardashian was "in French territory".

Madar's lawyer retorted: "But the whole world knew, sir. She has 350 million followers."

More investigators are to speak on Tuesday at the trial, which is to last until May 23.

Kardashian, her lawyers said, "is genuinely grateful for the way in which the French authorities conducted the investigation that led to the discovery of the persons facing charges in this trial.

"Throughout the process, the utmost respect and consideration has been given for Ms. Kardashian," they said.

She "will cooperate with the judicial process and answer all questions," her lawyers added.