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One of the suspects on trial for allegedly holding Kim Kardashian at gunpoint and robbing her in a Paris hotel room claimed Tuesday that he now “regrets” the $10 million heist — despite writing a book titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian.”
Yunice Abbas, 71, is one of 10 people — since dubbed the “grandpa gang” — currently faces charges for allegedly stealing an engagement ring and other bling from the reality TV star during Paris Fashion Week in 2016.
Despite being a career criminal with a hefty rap sheet, Abbas — who admitted to being a lookout but said he never actually saw Kardashian — insisted on the stand that this is the one crime he feels remorse over.
“Before I didn’t. But this time I do regret what I did… It opened my eyes,” he told a central Paris court, according to the BBC.
He claimed it was the extensive media coverage following the heist that made him consider the “trauma” he had caused the Skims founder.
“TVs were talking about it all day and it led me to ask myself some questions,” Abbas said.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, honed in on the book Abbas went on to write — titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian” — in 2021 about his role in the ordeal.
Asked if the title indicated he was proud of the violent ordeal, Abbas told the court: “No, not at all.”
In the lead up to the trial, Abbas — whose prior raps include burglaries and minor drug trafficking — repeatedly told French media that he was sorry for what he did and that he wanted to apologize to Kardashian.
Still, it comes after Abbas, who has spent 17 years in prison over the years, previously boasted in a Vice magazine interview in 2022 that he felt no remorse over the Kardashian robbery.
“Since she was throwing money away, I was there to collect it, and that was that” he said at the time. “Guilty? No, I don’t care. I don’t care.”
“They should be a little less showy toward people who can’t afford it.”
His testimony kicked off day two of the high-profile trial that will see Kardashian, herself, testify on May 13.
Abbas and his co-defendants are accused of wearing ski masks and clothes with police markings when they stormed the Hôtel de Pourtalès room and zip-tied the billionaire celebrity in the bathroom.
They then allegedly made off with the $4 million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, and a bevvy of other jewels, investigators said.
DNA traces found on plastic bands used to tie Kardashian’s wrists helped police make arrests the following January.
In total, nine men and one woman are being tried by the criminal court on a slew of armed robbery, kidnapping and complicity charges.
One of the suspects involved in the heist has since died while another is too ill to be put on trial, prosecutors said.
With Post wires
English (US)