DONNARUMMA HOME RAID ENDS WITH TWO MEN SENTENCED TO PRISON IN FRANCE

Two men have been sentenced to prison in France for their involvement in the violent burglary at the Paris home of Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his then-fiancée, Alessia Elefante, in July 2023. The attack, which occurred while Donnarumma was playing for Paris Saint-Germain, saw the couple dragged from their bed, threatened with knives and held captive inside their luxury apartment on Avenue Montaigne in central Paris. The gang reportedly escaped with cash, jewellery, watches and luxury bags valued by Donnarumma at almost €1m.

The main defendant, Ilyas Kherbouch, 21, was sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court to nine years in prison and fined €80,000 for his role in the operation. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison sentence for Kherbouch, who was accused of being one of the masterminds behind the robbery. Another defendant, Moktar D., received a five-year prison sentence, with two years suspended subject to a probation period. A third man, Khyan M., 22, who prosecutors suspected of helping organise the robbery from inside prison, was acquitted by the court.

The terrifying incident happened in the early hours of July 21, 2023, when four masked men reportedly entered the couple’s ninth-floor apartment through the rooftops. Donnarumma was beaten with hard knuckle gloves until he bled, while Elefante was choked with a phone charging cable before the attackers separated and tied them up. The gang reportedly demanded money and watches before making off with the valuables. Some members of the wider seven-man group remain unidentified, while investigators believe the robbery was part of a wider pattern of violent attacks targeting wealthy residents and celebrities in the exclusive Avenue Montaigne area.

Elefante, who was pregnant at the time of the attack, later suffered a miscarriage, which was attributed to the trauma she experienced during the violent burglary. The prosecution described the type of crime as highly lucrative but extremely violent, noting that several celebrities had been targeted in the area between 2022 and 2025. The case has therefore drawn attention not only because of Donnarumma’s profile as an international footballer, but also because of the increasingly aggressive methods used by criminal gangs targeting wealthy individuals in Paris.

During the trial, the alleged masterminds denied involvement despite prosecutors pointing to messages and images recovered from phones they had used while in custody. Kherbouch had also previously gained notoriety after escaping from Villepinte prison in Seine-Saint-Denis in March. Moktar, who was the only defendant accused of being physically present at the scene, claimed he had only acted as a lookout from a building opposite Donnarumma’s apartment. The latest convictions bring a major development in a case that has remained unresolved since the attack on the goalkeeper and his partner more than three years ago.