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A career armed robber who personally bound Kim Kardashian at gunpoint before stealing $10million of jewellery from her today said his life since had been ‘horrible’ because of ‘mistreatment in prison’.
Aomar Aït Khedache, who is 70 and barely able to speak or hear, was communicating with a judge using written notes on Wednesday, the third day of his Paris trial.
Known as ‘Old Omar’, Aït Khedache faces spending the rest of his life in a cell for the kidnap and robbery of the American reality TV star during Fashion Week in the French capital in 2016.
Now ‘80 per cent disabled’, Aït Khedache was on Wednesday cross-examined by Judge David De Pas at the Paris Assizes.
‘How have the last few years been?’ asked the Judge.
‘Horrible,’ Aït Khedache replied in a written note which was transcribed by a court stenographer and then displayed on a screen.
When asked why, the defendant replied: ‘Conditions of detention difficult during all those years’.
He complained about ‘the people I came into contact with’ and ‘mistreatment’ by the French prison authorities.
A career armed robber who personally bound Kim Kardashian (pictured) at gunpoint before stealing $10million of jewellery from her today said his life since had been ‘horrible’
Kim Kardashian sporting the ring all week long at Paris Fashion Week in the days leading up to the robbery
Aomar Aït Khedache, who is 70 and barely able to speak or hear, (pictured) was communicating with a judge using written notes on Wednesday
Aït Khedache explained how his health deteriorated, and he suffered from serious heart problems, along with other conditions such as deafness.
Prosecutors allege that Aït Khedache, who was first arrested for burglary as a 14-year-old, was the ringleader of the gang who raided Ms Kardashian’s £12,000-a-night Paris penthouse.
He has admitted going into her room, and holding her up with a vintage Mauser pistol, but insisted he was just ‘an ordinary small-scale robber’.
Ms Kardashian was alone and naked except for a bathrobe at the time, and feared she was about to be raped or murdered.
Instead, she was tied-up, gagged and locked in a bathroom, before the gang made off with her favourite jewellery, including the $4million ring rapper Kanye West had given her to seal their engagement.
Aït Khedache is one of ten defendants in the current trial who were all arrested as early as 2017.
His DNA was found on plastic ties which were used to restrain Ms Kardashian, while video footage and telephone data also placed him at the scene.
Aït Khedache is one of the three raiders who arrived at the Kardashian property on bicycles, and he was allegedly later driven away by his eldest son, Harminy Aït Khedache, 38 – another defendant.
Like all the others, Aït Khedache senior was released from a remand cell in April 2020, and bailed to stay at home in greater Paris.
Defendant Aomar Ait Khedache (R) and his lawyer Chloe Arnoux (L) on the opening day of the trial against suspects in the armed robbery of Kim Kardashian at the Paris Courthouse, France, 28 April 2025
Prosecutors allege that Aït Khedache, who was first arrested for burglary as a 14-year-old, was the ringleader of the gang who raided Ms Kardashian’s £12,000-a-night Paris penthouse
His DNA was found on plastic ties which were used to restrain Ms Kardashian
He remains addicted to tobacco, and during his court appearances was allowed regular breaks to smoke outside.
Aït Khedache was born in Algeria when it was part of the French Empire, and his father fought for French forces against Algerian nationalists during the war of independence in the North African country.
Like many so-called ‘Harki’ families, they were viewed as traitors in Algeria, and fled to the Parisian suburbs when Aït Khedache was a child.
He started robbing banks in the 1970s – a decade when he was regulalry jailed.
Later, he was convicted four times for drugs trafficking, while learning to become a chef in prison.
In 2016, he was on the run from a five-year sentence for kidnap and robbery, using the alias Pascal Larbi – a name he stolen from a former colleague who has since died.
Aït Khedache’s partner at the time of the Kardashian raid was Christiane ‘Cathy’ Glotin, a 78-year-old woman who is also among the 10 defendants in court.
During police questioning, Aït Khedache attemped to incriminate a mysterious ‘mastermined’ behind the Kardashian robbery.
Kim Kardashian West and chauffeur Michael Madar (R) arrive at ‘L’Avenue’ restaurant on October 2, 2016 in Paris, France
Pictures of gaffer tape used to gag Kim and Serflex cable ties used to bind her
The socialite was bound and gagged at a hotel room in Paris in October 2016
The thieves said they arrived and left on push bikes
Calling him ‘Ben’, he said they met in prison during the 1990s, but he could not remember his full name.
Chloé Arnoux, Aït Khedaches’s defence lawyer, has criticised prosecutors and judicial police for ‘not investigating this mastermind.’
There were originally 12 alleged gang members of the Kardashian gang but Marceau Baum-Gertner, the alleged ‘super fence’ of the Paris underworld, died suddenly last month at the age of 72.
He made a number of trips to Antwerp with Aït Khedache to sell the Kardashian jewellery, which has never been recovered, it is alleged.
Pierre Bouianère, a 72-year-old friend of Aït Khedache, is also now excluded from the trial, because of his Alzheimer’s disease.
Aït Khedache and a second defendant, Yunnis Abbas, 72, have both admitted their guilt, while all the others deny any wrongdoing.
The trial, which is due to go on until May 23rd, continues.
Ms Kardashian’s American lawyers have confirmed that she will fly in from Los Angeles to give evidence in mid-May.
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