The confessions of the guardian of the Pourtalès lodge | EUROtoday

On May 11, 2025

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

“ÇWas weird, this is the first time that I have seen the place. »Lost out in the distance, white beard and graying wick falling on the front, Abderrahmane Ouatiki, 47, stands in a corridor of the Paris courthouse. For the past week, this elegant but discreet man, with a sparkling look, has witnessed alone, from the box of civil parties, at the trial of the robbers of Kim Kardashian. A few minutes earlier, the president of the Assize Court brought up photos taken inside the Pourtalès mansion (8th arrondissement of Paris), where the breakage took place on October 3, 2016.

That night, the 39-year-old Algerian scholar works as an evening watchman for a subcontractor of the corporate “No Adress”, which operates the lodge nestled within the coronary heart of the Madeleine district. He was not deliberate for the planning, however his employer referred to as on him on the final minute. Arrived in France in 2003, Abderrahmane Ouatiki has been working since 2010 since 2010, three nights per week, to finance his semiology doctorate on the “Concepts and Languages” college of the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne. The day, this language specialist prepares his thesis on the “semiotic approach to extremist discourse”. Then, at 9 p.m., he moved to the reception of the Hôtel de Pourtalès. His wage permits him to pay his hire, and to assist his spouse and son, who remained in Algeria. “The rhythm with the university was very hard,” he advised Point.

“Where is the rapper’s wife?” »»

On August 3, 2016, it was round 2:50 a.m. when three hooded males wearing jackets in police arose on the entrance to the Pourtalès lodge, the evening watchman doesn’t panic. In Algeria of the last decade of lead, the place he grew up, the police had been typically hooded: “I lived there, then with terrorism, it is not surprising that the police could wear hoods,” he’ll clarify to the BRB investigators.

Except that hardly arrived on the door, one of many false cops is pointing a handgun on him. Abderrahmane Ouatiki is handcuffed. “Where is the rapper’s wife?” The press one. Under the specter of the weapon, the watchman signifies the condo “1a Garden Duplex” by Kim Kardashian. Arrived within the room, the stress rises from a notch. Kim Kardashian panics and begs the robbers to not harm him. One of the criminals is irritated: “I did the interpreter a little to explain to them, because the little nervous rose a little in the towers,” says Ouatiki. The theft will final lower than 10 minutes. Estimated loot quantity: between $ 9 and $ 10 million in jewellery. Around 8:30 a.m., when the investigators begin the evening watchman’s listening to, Kim Kardashian has already gone to Le Bourget to take his personal jet. For him, nonetheless, troubles are simply starting.

“It could be him, the mole”

The days following the theft, it’s the riot in Paris. American tv channels camp in entrance of the Pourtalès lodge to glimpse the scene scene. Journalists from around the globe are attempting to get the variety of the evening’s goalkeeper, to whom a job of confederate is given: “The press reported […] That I would have opened the hotel’s outer door to the criminals, while the door was open and the lock, broken, “he’ll clarify to the investigating decide. Same suspicions on the aspect of the brigade of repression of banditry (BRB), answerable for the investigation, which locations him at first listening: “It could be him, the mole. He was placed on listening from the moment we started the investigation, but we did not ask for an extension, “might be justified earlier than the Assize Court Michel Malécot, the commander who led the investigations.

As if the media stress was not sufficient, administrative troubles are additionally invited. The standing of scholar of Abderrahmane Ouatiki having expired, the researcher dangers expulsion. “I had to re-register at the university first, then submit my residence permit renewal file to the prefecture, but I was not in tune,” he stated Point. Despite the paperwork testifying to her delicate scenario, signed by her legal professionals and the investigating decide, an obligation to depart French territory (OQTF) was despatched to him in December.

Back to sq. one. Expelled in Algeria, Abderrahmane Ouatiki finds his household in Tizi-Ouzou, however struggles to beat his post-traumatic stress syndrome, identified by a psychiatrist. “It was a disaster, my life fell into the water. I took a year to be able to rework. Imagine, after 18 years of study. This is the real administrative robbery for me, ”he explains.

Unanswered questions

Nine years after the facts, the father of three said goodbye to his dreams as a semiology researcher, he who dreamed of ending his career in the United States. He has since been converted into permaculture and agronomy, without having driven the shadow of robbery that still hovers over his life. “You have seemed rather a lot elsewhere, she remains to be there,” says the one who feels “disgusted” by the suspicions he has been the subject of.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Especially since, for him, sure questions stay on the evening of October 3, 2016. Like these safety flaws which facilitated the theft of rue Tronchet. To the investigating decide who got here to query him in Algeria, on November 16, 2017, he recalled that he had however alerted in writing the administration of the lodge and his supervisor, with out end result: “There had already been flights with break-in, especially in commercial premises next to the hotel”, he recollects. How to elucidate then, that video surveillance was disconnected? That the service has not closed for a number of days? And why had been we waited for 9 years to evaluate this case? “Would the French find it normal?” He questions us.

At the Paris Assize Court, Abderrahmane Ouatiki’s legal professionals are decided to make the model of their shopper heard: “Kim Kardashian was stolen from jewelry and experienced something difficult. But my client has lost nine years of his life, so if you are looking for a victim, it’s him, ”says Me Mohand Ouidja. By the decision, on May 23, Abderrahmane Ouatiki may have the chance to inform his tragedy within the court docket. For the second, he observes the debates and affected person. After 9 years of ready, he’s not a couple of days previous.

https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/proces-des-braqueurs-de-kim-kardashian-les-confessions-du-gardien-de-l-hotel-de-pourtales-11-05-2025-2589316_23.php