Versailles (AFP)
Recalled to everyone's surprise in the French team by Didier Deschamps for the Euro football (June 11-July 11), Karim Benzema remains under the threat of a conviction in the case of the sextape of Mathieu Valbuena.
He will be tried in October.
- What do we blame him for?
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Benzema is accused of having participated in an attempt to blackmail his former teammate with the Blues, Mathieu Valbuena.
After recovering an intimate video of Valbuena, blackmailers decided to extract money from the latter.
They contacted a close friend of Benzema, Karim Zenati, hoping the Real Madrid star could act as an intermediary.
In October 2015, the two internationals met at Clairefontaine, the training center of the French football team.
Benzema explains that he can "present someone you trust" to Valbuena, according to the referral order consulted by AFP, to help "manage" the possible publication of this video.
"Attention Math, they are big, big thugs," he warns him.
After this discussion, Benzema calls his friend Karim Zenati and explains to him: "He does not take us seriously".
An "us" which, according to the prosecution, shows that the Madrid striker "includes" in this blackmail enterprise.
Over the phone, the two wiretapped men appear to be mocking Valbuena, with Benzema predicting he will "get tomatoes thrown" if the video is released.
- Where is the business?
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After six years of legal twists and turns, the Real Madrid star, indicted for "complicity in attempted blackmail", will be tried by the court of Versailles from October 20 to 22, 2021.
He will appear free, without judicial review, and theoretically risks five years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.
In this case, where the French Football Federation is a civil party, four other men are being prosecuted for attempted blackmail - including Karim Zenati - and one of them is also indicted for breach of trust.
Benzema was also initially prosecuted for "participation in a criminal association" before this qualification was dropped.
In another case, "the Zahia affair", Benzema was referred to the criminal court for "solicitation of a minor prostitute", before being released in 2014.
- What's he saying?
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Karim Benzema pleads friendly advice to "a friend" and has several times explained that he wanted to "help" Valbuena, where justice suspects him of tortious pressure.
"I speak to him from the heart and he knows it. When I hear about blackmail, that we have asked for money, it drives me crazy (...) I don't need money", he explained in 2015.
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"So when is the masquerade for, eh?" He reacted on his social networks to the decision to send him back to the Versailles criminal court.
"Here is finally vamonos (note: Let's go), that the masquerade is extinguished forever," he added at the end of March, when the date was formalized.
© 2021 AFP