A Paris criminal court has sentenced two men for their roles in the brutal burglary of Manchester City and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his pregnant girlfriend at their luxury apartment in the French capital. Ilyas Kherbouch, 21, identified as the mastermind, received nine years in prison and an €80,000 ($93,000) fine. His co-defendant, Moktar D., was handed a five-year sentence, with two years suspended and a probationary period. A third man, Khyan M., whom prosecutors suspected of orchestrating the robbery from his prison cell, was acquitted.
Prosecutors had sought sentences ranging from four to 10 years for the three alleged perpetrators. The harshest term of 10 years was requested for Kherbouch, alias “Ganito,” who gained notoriety after a brazen escape from Villepinte prison in Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, last March. The prosecution also requested nine and six years respectively for Khyan M., 22, known as “Kiki,” and Moktar D.
The court heard that in the early hours of July 21, 2023, Donnarumma and his then-fiancée, now wife, Alessia Elefante, were dragged from their bed and held captive by four masked men who had entered their ninth-floor apartment via the rooftops. Donnarumma was beaten with hard-knuckle gloves until he bled, while attackers shouted, “The money, the watches!” Elefante was choked with a phone charging cable, and the couple were separated and bound. A seven-man gang—some still unidentified—made off in minutes with cash, jewellery, watches, and luxury bags, which the footballer valued at just under €1 million ($1.1 million).
During closing arguments, the prosecutor noted that the exclusive Avenue Montaigne neighbourhood has been “targeted by an increasingly youthful criminal population,” listing seven celebrities victimised between 2022 and 2025. Such crimes are “highly lucrative” and “extremely violent,” targeting “its own idols,” the prosecution added. At the time of the burglary, Donnarumma was playing for Paris Saint-Germain; he moved to Manchester City in 2025.
The second and final day of the high-profile trial unfolded calmly, with Kherbouch apologising to the police officers he had insulted on Thursday and to the court. Both alleged masterminds denied involvement during questioning, despite messages and images recovered from phones they had used while in custody. Moktar D., the only defendant present at the scene, claimed he had merely acted as a lookout on a building opposite the couple’s apartment. His childhood friend, also implicated and accused of being an informant, committed suicide in prison.
Source: www.aljazeera.com