A Paris Criminal Court has sentenced two men for their roles in a violent home invasion targeting Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his partner, Alessia Elefante, in July 2023. The incident occurred at the couple’s luxury apartment on Avenue Montaigne in central Paris while the Italian international was still playing for Paris Saint-Germain.
Ilyas Kherbouch, 21, identified as the mastermind behind the operation, received a nine-year prison sentence and an 80,000 euro ($93,000) fine. A second defendant, Moktar D, was sentenced to five years in prison, with two years suspended under a probationary period. A third individual, 22-year-old Khyan M, who was suspected of helping organize the heist from his own prison cell, was acquitted of the charges.
During the trial, the court heard harrowing details of the July 21, 2023, ordeal. A seven-man gang, some of whom remain unidentified, breached the ninth-floor apartment via the rooftops in the early morning hours. Donnarumma, 27, was beaten with knuckle gloves until he bled, while Elefante was choked with a phone charging cable. The couple was bound and held at knifepoint as the intruders demanded valuables, shouting, “The money, the watches!”
The attackers escaped within minutes, taking cash, jewelry, luxury bags, and watches. The Italian footballer estimated the total value of the stolen goods at just under one million euros ($1.1 million). Prosecutors noted that the trauma of the event led to a miscarriage for Elefante, who is now Donnarumma’s wife. Donnarumma later transferred to Manchester City in 2025.
The prosecution highlighted that the exclusive Avenue Montaigne area has been frequently “targeted by an increasingly youthful criminal population,” citing seven celebrity victims between 2022 and 2025. Describing the crime as “highly lucrative” and “extremely violent,” officials noted that the perpetrators specifically targeted “its own idols.”
During the proceedings, Kherbouch, known as “Ganito” and notorious for a previous escape from Villepinte prison, apologized to the court and to police officers he had insulted earlier in the week. While the two alleged masterminds denied involvement, investigators recovered incriminating messages and images from phones used while they were in custody.
Moktar D, the only defendant present at the scene, maintained he served only as a lookout from a building opposite the apartment. Another individual, a childhood friend of the accused who was suspected of acting as an informant, died by suicide while in prison. Prosecutors had initially sought sentences ranging from four to 10 years for the defendants involved in the high-profile case. The report also notes that alias “Ganito” – who gained notoriety following his brazen escape from Villepinte prison in Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris last March, the harshest sentence of 10 years had been sought for Kherbouch.
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