Ilyas Kerbouch, known by the nickname "Ganito," went on trial on Thursday, September 10, in Paris accused of orchestrating a violent home invasion at the Paris home of former Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in July 2023, even though he was already in prison at the time.
The trial opened under high tension at the Paris judicial court, with the main defendant shouting and hurling insults from the dock, forcing the hearing to be suspended within its opening minutes. Proceedings are being held under heightened security, with TF1's evening news team travelling to the courthouse to cover the opening day.
Thomas Klotz, a lawyer representing the civil parties, told TF1 that the hearing was proving particularly difficult and dramatic, and said it was essential for calm to return to the courtroom.
Donnarumma, an Italian international goalkeeper who has played for several of Europe's top clubs, was with Paris Saint-Germain, one of France's most prominent football clubs, when armed intruders broke into his Paris home in July 2023 in what French media have described as a "home-jacking," a violent burglary carried out while the occupants are present, sometimes involving hostages being tied up or threatened. Donnarumma has separately told TF1 that he felt powerless and was tied up during the robbery.
Escape from Villepinte prison
At 21, Ganito, who is considered a repeat offender by French authorities, had already made headlines in the weeks before his trial began. He was transferred urgently between prisons after being suspected of preparing a fresh escape attempt.
In March 2026, he had escaped through the main gate of the Villepinte detention centre, in Seine-Saint-Denis northeast of Paris, escorted by three men posing as police officers who carried a fake extraction order.
To pull off that escape, Ganito forced a high school student who was skilled with computers to produce fake identity papers for him, sending the teenager videos of torture to make sure he complied.
Accomplice describes being tortured
Kerbouch is being tried alongside several co-defendants accused of taking part in the raid on Donnarumma's home. One of the alleged accomplices said he had been held captive by Ganito's henchmen after refusing to follow orders.
Ugo Valls, a defense lawyer in the case, told TF1 that the man had been assaulted throughout an entire night and was hospitalised the next day in serious condition, having been slashed, tortured and punished for hours, possibly because he had not carried out what he had been told to do.
Eleven convictions and 20 years already served
Ganito has a violent profile and has spent much of his life in prison, ruling by fear even from behind bars. He was first jailed at 14 for group violence that resulted in a death, and he kept reoffending while in detention.
He has since been convicted 11 times for theft, violence, kidnapping and false imprisonment, and has accumulated sentences totalling 20 years in detention.
Alfred Reboul, Kerbouch's lawyer, said his client had known only a few months of freedom since the age of 14, and that his detention under a strict isolation regime was clearly going extremely badly.
In the trial that opened Thursday, Kerbouch faces up to 30 years in prison for allegedly ordering the home-jacking of Gianluigi Donnarumma, on top of the 20 years in detention he has already accumulated across his eleven previous convictions.
