PARIS - At the Paris trial of 10 people accused of robbing Kim Kardashian at gunpoint in 2016, a defendant who wrote a book about the jewellery heist said he regretted participating, while one of his co-accused vehemently denied any involvement.
Yunice Abbas says he remained in a Paris hotel lobby on the lookout while two other suspects stormed into her room, tied her up and made away with around $10-million worth of her jewels.
But Abbas has sought to capitalise on the crime by publishing his version of events in a 2021 book titled "I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian".
A prosecutor held up a copy of the book in court, and the presiding judge asked the author why he had bragged about the theft.
Sitting in the dock in a short-sleeved check shirt, Abbas shook his head vigorously from left to right.
"It makes me very uneasy," said the short bald man, adding that he "totally regretted" taking part in the theft.
Abbas has said he arrived at the scene of the robbery on a bicycle then left by the same means, dropping a bag of loot as he fled.
He picked it up but missed a diamond necklace, the only item that police were able to retrieve from the holdup.
Abbas told the hearing stealing from Kardashian was the one job "too many" that "opened his eyes" to his wrongdoing.
The defendant, who now has Parkinson's disease, held his right hand over his left placed on his heart throughout the court session. He said it was to stop it from racing when he became anxious.
The presiding judge on Tuesday reviewed the accused's criminal past.
He listed, among others, a conviction for fake number plates for carrying out robberies, another for equipping cars with secret compartments to hide cannabis, and a third for armed robbery in which Abbas held a gun.
Abbas, like all nine other defendants, is not in custody.
He said one of his neighbours had joked on Monday night, after he returned home from the first day of the trial, that the court had effectively already freed him.
His lawyer asked him if he would however be prepared to be punished if found guilty.