American celebrity Kim Kardashian told a Paris court on Tuesday she feared she was going to be killed by masked men who robbed her at gunpoint of millions of dollars of jewellery during the French capital’s fashion week.
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Ten suspects have been on trial since late April over the armed robbery in 2016, which saw jewellery worth some US$10 million stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.
“Hi! I’m Kim Kardashian and I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for allowing me to testify today and tell my truth,” she told the packed court as she began giving evidence, wearing a black suit.
The trial has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and crowds flocking around the courthouse on Paris’s historic Ile de la Cite early on Tuesday with fans hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity.
“I came to Paris for Fashion Week and Paris is always a place I love so much,” Kardashian said as she gave the court her account of the night of October 2-3, 2016, when she was robbed while staying at an exclusive, discreet hotel in central Paris.
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She was in her hotel room – “with my best friend downstairs, my sister and my friend and my mom, they were all out for the night” – when she heard “stomping” up the stairs and people “who I assumed were police officers because they were in uniform” entered her room.