Real Madrid CF’s Karim Benzema, appearing here for a match earlier this month, has been found guilty of a blackmail case.
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Real Madrid CF’s Karim Benzema, appearing here for a match earlier this month, has been found guilty of a blackmail case.
Image of Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Getty
Football star Karim Benzema, who plays for Real Madrid and the French national team, has been found guilty of conspiring to blackmail a former team-mate over a sex tape. The scandal broke out in 2015 and caused major failures in the careers of both players.
A court in Versailles, France, sentenced Benzema to a year of probation and fined him 75,000 euros (about $84,000). The court also found four of Benzema’s accomplices guilty of attempted extortion.
Benzema’s lawyers have told reporters he plans to appeal. “This result in no way corresponds to the reality of events,” lawyer Antoine Vey said after the ruling, according to Reuters.
Prosecutors have portrayed Benzema as a middle man who, in 2015, tried to convince French team-mate Mathieu Valbuena to pay blackmailers who threatened to release a sex tape – an allegation that Benzema has long denied it.
At the trial, Valbuena testified that Benzema approached him and said he had a friend “who can solve your problems,” the Associated Press reported. In a wiretapped call broadcast in court, Benzema is heard talking to Karim Zenati, his co-defendant and former friend, informing him of the exchange with Valbuena.
Benzema was dropped from the national team after the scandal broke. At that time, Benzema, originally from Algeria, say racist contributed to the decision.
But now, Benzema has returned to the French team. He played this year in the European Championship.
And it looks like the court outcome won’t threaten his place on the team. The French football federation did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment, but signaled over the past month to other news organizations that a guilty verdict would not automatically lead to Benzema’s removal from the club. list.
NPR could not reach Real Madrid immediately. Benzema is expected to play in the club’s Champions League match on Wednesday against Police Chief Tiraspol.
Valbuena’s career has not been very successful in the years since the scandal broke. He currently plays for Olympiacos, a Greek team. But he did not return to the French national team.
Lawyer Didier Domat told the AP: “He has suffered from stereotypes about sports that are difficult to correct. “We are pleased that his victimhood has been recognized.”
