Talk about a novel defense strategy: A French career criminal has written a book about his role in the armed robbery of Kim Kardashian West during Paris Fashion Week in 2016, in which he and four accomplices made off with an estimated $10 million of the star’s jewels.

Yunice Abbas tells his version of events in “J’ai séquestré Kim Kardashian” (“I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian” in English), cowritten by journalist Thierry Niemen and due to be published on Thursday by Editions l’Archipel.

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Abbas is one of a dozen people awaiting trial in the case, which grabbed headlines worldwide. Kardashian West told a French investigating judge that she thought she was being kidnapped by terrorists.

“I remember that I had an indescribable feeling, as if my heart would leave my body, I thought that I was going to die,” she said, according to a transcript subsequently published by French daily Le Monde.

Abbas, 66, describes his life of crime, including 20 years spent behind bars. He said he wanted to set the record straight because there were too many inaccurate accounts of what took place at the No Address residence in central Paris on the night of Oct. 2 to 3, 2016.

“One year after my conditional release under house arrest, I have read way too many stupidities, base accusations, vile lies or rough guesses to continue doing what I had forced myself to do for so long: keep my trap shut,” he said in the colorfully written book.

Kardashian West was naked under her bathrobe when two masked men wearing police jackets burst into her room around 3 a.m. and robbed her at gunpoint. She was bound and gagged with plastic cables and tape, and left in the bathtub.

In an extract from the book available on the publisher’s website, Abbas described fleeing the scene of the crime on a bicycle with a flat tire, which caused him to crash the bike and drop a bag full of jewelry on the pavement. He said he hastily gathered the contents before getting away using a taxi and a stolen car.

According to French media reports, a passerby later found Kardashian West’s diamond cross from Jacob & Co. and handed it to the police, helping the investigation that led to the arrest of the suspects. Kardashian has since embarked on a new career as a lawyer and campaigned for prison reform.

See also:

Coty Closes $200M Kim Kardashian West Beauty Deal

Kim Kardashian Used Healing Crystals to Recover From 2016 Paris Robbery

Kim Kardashian Thought Armed Paris Robbers Were Terrorists