Spanish
Paris.- The prosecution requested this Wednesday sentences of between 6 and 10 years in prison for eight of the ten defendants for the robbery of jewels from Kim Kardashian that occurred in Paris in October 2016.
"There is no doubt about the guilt of the accused," stated clearly prosecutor Anne Dominique Merville in her closing argument before the judges of the court.
The most serious penalty, 10 years in prison, was requested for the one considered the mastermind of the operation, Aomar Aït Khedache, and for three other members of the group who entered a small luxury hotel and held Kardashian at gunpoint to make her hand over her jewelry.
A son of Aït Khedache, who acted as a chauffeur, faces a request for 8 years, while the brother of Kardashian's driver in Paris and a friend of his, who allegedly gave information about the victim's movements, saw the prosecution request seven years for each of them.
For the only woman among the accused, Cathy Glotin, 6 years were requested for her liaison work between Aït Khedache and the members of the group.
Another member of the command that entered the hotel to assault Kardashian was acquitted of the trial because he suffers from advanced Alzheimer's.
The sentences could have been much harsher, even life imprisonment for recidivism in the most severe cases, but the prosecution considered the advanced age and medical problems of most of the accused.
The verdict is announced on Friday
The defense began its arguments this afternoon, a turn that will conclude tomorrow, Thursday. In this way, the judges' verdict is expected for Friday.
The prosecutor defined Aït Khedache as the leader of the group and organizer of the robbery, a multiple repeat offender who was one of those who threatened Kardashian to hand over her jewels.
Aït Khedache, now 69 years old, has serious health problems, as he is deaf and almost mute, apologized to Kardashian through an assistant during the trial.
Despite his situation and the fact that the risk of recidivism is non-existent, the prosecutor requested the sentence because "he must pay for his crimes".
The robbery, which made headlines worldwide due to the victim's status as a reality TV and social media star - who now has 356 million followers on Instagram - occurred in the early hours of October 3, 2016.
That night, the gang assaulted a small, discreet luxury hotel in the Madeleine area, in central Paris, where Kardashian was staying during her attendance at Fashion Week.
The robbers took jewelry valued at about 10 million dollars, including the wedding ring that rapper Kanye West had given to Kim Kardashian, a piece with a 19-carat diamond and valued at about four million dollars.
The accused were arrested in January 2017. Some have admitted their involvement, as they were identified by DNA remains, while the others have defended their innocence.
The band members were dubbed by the French press as the "yayoladrones" because many of them are over or around 70 years old, with a long criminal record and many years of imprisonment behind them.
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Except for a necklace, lost by the thieves in their hasty escape and recovered by the police, the rest of the jewelry has not reappeared and it is believed that it was sold in Belgium.
Kardashian testified last week at the trial, in a session in which she recounted the trauma she suffered because, she said, she feared she was going to be raped and murdered when threatened with a gun pointed at her head.
The famous American woman was tied with cable ties and put in a bathtub, and since then she needs to have security guards at night to be able to sleep peacefully, she assured.
