15/05/2025

THURSDAY | MAY 15, 2025

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I thought I was going to die, Kardashian tells court

Ex-Olympic cyclist avoids jail time

SYDNEY: Australian former world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis avoided jail yesterday for driving in a way“likely to cause harm”before his car struck and killed his Olympian wife Melissa Hoskins. A judge in South Australia handed down a suspended sentence of nearly 17 months citing his guilty plea, his remorse and his role as sole carer of their young children. Dennis, 34, admitted last year to an “aggravated act likely to cause harm” over the December 2023 road incident, which ended in retired track cyclist Hoskins’ death. Dennis, an Olympic medallist in 2012 and 2021, was not charged with causing her death. Judge Ian Press told the District Court in Adelaide that the couple had an argument over house renovations, prompting Dennis to drive off to calm down. Hoskins jumped onto the car bonnet but Dennis carried on slowly driving for up to 10 seconds – “an inherently risky and dangerous act”, the judge said. She got off at an intersection and then opened the door to the moving car before Dennis reached out to shut it, and attempted to drive away, he added. “What happened next does not form the basis of the charge as the prosecution accept that, unbeknownst to you, your wife held onto the car as you accelerated down the street,” the judge said. “It was then that she fell and lost her life.” Hoskins, who represented Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, died in an Adelaide hospital from her injuries. She rode in the Australian team that won the team pursuit event at the 2015 Track Cycling World Championships in France. Dennis won the world time trials in 2018 and 2019, as well as taking a 2015 stage win in the Tour de France. “To describe the consequences of the events on 30 December 2023 as tragic really does not do justice to the grief, the anguish and the turmoil those events have brought into the lives of those who knew and loved your wife,” the judge said. – AFP ‘Credit Suisse bonus cuts unlawful’ ZURICH: A top Swiss court has ruled that the Swiss government’s reductions and cancellations of bonus payments to former executives of Credit Suisse after the bank failed in 2023 were unlawful, according to the ruling published late on Tuesday. The bonus measures affected around 1,000 people, some of whom challenged the decision with Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court, which upheld their appeal. “The variable remunerations reduced by the (Swiss Finance Ministry) were binding, employer-guaranteed claims deriving from a contractual employment relationship,” the court said. “Such contractual claims are protected by the guarantee of ownership.” The ruling may be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court, the court said in a statement. The court’s decision is likely to be closely watched by other parties affected by the demise of Credit Suisse, which collapsed in March 2023 and was taken over by rival UBS in an operation orchestrated by Swiss authorities. As part of that process, Swiss financial market regulator FINMA wrote down about US$17 billion (US$73.2 billion) of Credit Suisse’s Additional Tier 1 debt, angering bondholders. A number of bondholders have since filed lawsuits against Switzerland seeking compensation for their losses. – Reuters

o US celebrity forgives accused despite trauma

PARIS: Reality TV star Kim Kardashian told a Paris court on Tuesday she feared she would be killed by the masked men who robbed her at gunpoint of some US$10 million (RM43 million) of jewellery in her hotel room in 2016, but expressed her forgiveness despite the “trauma”. The trial of 10 suspects has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and crowds flocking around the courthouse on Paris’s historic Ile de la Cite hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity. “Hi! I’m Kim Kardashian and I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for allowing me to testify today and tell my truth,” she told the packed court, wearing a black skirt suit and jewelled necklace. “I came to Paris for Fashion Week and Paris is always a place I love so much,” Kardashian said, giving the court her account of the night of Oct 2-3, 2016, when she was robbed while staying at an exclusive, discreet hotel in the centre of the city. She was in her room – “with my best friend downstairs, my sister and my friend and my mom ... all out for the night” – when she heard “stomping” up the stairs. Then people “who I assumed were police officers because they were in uniform” entered her room, said Kardashian, who is among the world’s most followed people on Instagram and X. “Then I heard one of the gentlemen say ‘ring’ a few times over, ‘ring,’ ‘ring’ and he pointed his finger with an accent,” she said, adding that she didn’t at first “understand it was for my jewellery”. The man found what he was looking for: a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then husband, rapper Kanye West, and valued at €3.5 million (RM16.9 million). The attackers then began to look for more valuables, threatened Kardashian with a gun and tied her up with a zip tie, she said, visibly emotional. “I was certain that he was going to shoot me, so I said a prayer for my family.” Asked by the presiding judge if she feared she was going to be killed, Kardashian replied: “I absolutely did. I thought I was going to die.” She said she also feared she would be raped but the man with the gun “closed my legs and put a tape on my leg”. Kardashian said she was “grabbed and dragged into the other room” but not hit by the men. Their sudden appearance and the gun were, however, “absolutely terrifying”. From comments from one of the men, “I felt that he wanted me to know that I would be OK if I just shut up,” she said.

Kardashian leaves court after testifying. – REUTERSPIC

Kardashian has never viewed her security in the same way since the Paris robbery, she told the court. “It changed the way that I felt safe at home,” she said, adding she now relied on up to six security guards. “We have security everywhere we go,” she said, adding she no longer posts her whereabouts in real time “unless it is on a public schedule”. Kardashian also said she had undergone therapy to deal with her fears because “I have babies that I have to raise”, but “I try to be strong”. Asked about suggestions made at the time that the robbery could have been a publicity stunt or insurance fraud, Kardashian said that those reports had been “really hurtful”. The US celebrity, sometimes described as being “famous for being famous”, became well known in the early 2000s through TV reality shows, before launching fashion brands and appearing in several films. The trial is scheduled to run until May 23. – AFP

“Ultimately I decided not to resist and stay calm. That calmness saved my life.” Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records, with nicknames such as “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes”. Sixty-eight-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, has admitted to tying up Kardashian but denies being the mastermind. Another suspect in the dock, 71-year-old Yunice Abbas, later wrote a book about the heist. Khedache, who according to his lawyers is no longer able to speak due to health problems, told Kardashian that he “regrets” his actions in a letter that was read out in court. He said he had been “moved and touched by your tears”. Kardashian, who appeared tearful during the reading, said: “I do appreciate the letter, for sure” and “I’ve always believed in the second chance.” She added: “I forgive you for what has taken place but it does not change the emotion, the feelings, the trauma and the way my life changed.”

Le Monde partners with AI startup Perplexity PARIS: French newspaper Le Monde entered into a content partnership with US-based artificial intelligence company Perplexity yesterday, as AI startups compete for deals with news publications to improve the responses of their products amid intensifying competition. The deal grants Perplexity access to Le Monde’s content to enhance its search engine’s responses, while the newspaper will use the Nvidia-backed startup’s technology to develop new AI products. This partnership will also support publishers whose content is featured in Perplexity’s generated answers. “At Le Monde , we have continued to explore new partnerships with leading AI players to enlarge our audience, expand our development capacities, and to build new sources of

revenues,” said Louis Dreyfus, Le Monde’s CEO. Perplexity has already secured agreements with over a dozen media partners, including the Los Angeles Times and the Independent , as part of a programme that shares a portion of ad revenue with the publishers. AI firms have faced lawsuits from media groups and news publishers, who accuse them of using content without permission. – Reuters