Kim Kardashian is ready to “confront” her Paris attackers as the US celebrity prepares to testify in person next week at a trial over an armed robbery of her jewellery in 2016, her lawyers said Monday.
“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.
In late April, 10 suspects went on trial in Paris over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity, 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.
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 in 2016, including a diamond ring gifted by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West.
The theft was the biggest 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 film noirs.
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.
The trial is due to last until May 23.
