Versailles (AFP)

The prosecution requested ten months in prison against Karin Benzema, star of Real Madrid and former teammate of Valbuena in the France team, accused of complicity in attempted blackmail.

His lawyer, Me Antoine Vey, criticized during his pleadings a "prosecution" against his client and asked for his release.

"The intentional element of the offense" with which the 33-year-old striker is accused is not characterized, he insisted.

The file was built on the "feelings" of Mathieu Valbuena, he argued, denouncing the "assumptions and speculations" advanced by the prosecution.

"It is never too late to practice law, you are the last bulwark", asked the court the other lawyer of Benzema, Me Sylvain Cormier.

Same argument for Me Tewfik Bouzenoune, adviser to intermediary Younes Houass (18 months suspended sentence required), who also regretted that it is "the feeling of the victim which conditions the criminal proceedings".

In general, all the defense lawyers stigmatized a weak file, which in their eyes did not deserve such treatment from the prosecution and such echo in the press.

"One can wonder what really interests the French in this affair. The sex? The money? Football? Not the legal thing in any case", asked Antoine Vey.

Me Cormier thundered against a "media-judicial circus" during which "Karim Benzema was inflicted a kind of 'American walk of shame'" during his visit to the investigating judge in 2015.

- "Sports pressure" -

"We would not have spent so much time on this file if it had not been for Karim Benzema", had recognized Thursday during the requisitions the prosecutor Julien Eyraud.

French football player Mathieu Valbuena (r.), Implicated in a "sextape case", addresses media representatives alongside lawyer Paul Albert Iweins (c.) Inside a court in the end of the hearing in Versailles, west of Paris, on October 20, 2021, on the first day of the trial involving French footballer Karim Benzema.

Thomas SAMSON AFP

At his side, the other prosecutor, Ségolène Marés, had estimated that the eavesdropping proved that the star of Real Madrid "is included in this team and is associated in this project" of attempt of blackmail around an intimate video.

She was referring to a phone conversation between Benzema and her childhood friend Karim Zenati, in which both made fun of Valbuena.

"He does not take us seriously," explains Benzema, who has just spoken to Valbuena.

The star of Real Madrid was at that time "not in the most absolute contrition", admitted Friday his lawyer Antoine Vey.

"We never said he was benevolent (...) but it is not a criminal offense", he developed.

In addition to the ten months suspended prison sentence, the prosecution requested a fine of 75,000 euros against the striker of the France team, candidate for the Ballon d'Or and absent from the trial.

An absence which does not constitute "a legal strategy", supported Me Vey Friday, highlighting the "sporting pressure" around his client, who played a match in Ukraine on Tuesday evening and must prepare for Sunday's Clasico against FC Barcelona.

In great form, the striker trained at Olympique Lyonnais is one of the contenders for the Ballon d'Or, awarded at the end of November.

Coach Didier Deschamps is counting on him more than ever for the World Cup in November and December 2022 in Qatar, where the French will defend their title.

And the court ruling shouldn't change his plans.

Asked whether Benzema's international future was conditioned on his trial, the Blues boss answered evasively in early October.

"If I answer that and tell you yes, that means that before, it could have been ... I make sporting choices", he declared before the League of Nations, won by Benzema and the Blues.

Against the four other defendants in this case, "a real bunch of actors" in the words of prosecutor Julien Eyraud, the public prosecutor requested sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to four years in prison.

French midfielder Mathieu Valbuena (l.) And French striker Karim Benzema (r.) Listening to the French national anthem ahead of the round of 16 of the 2014 World Cup between France and Nigeria at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia, June 30, 2014. Franck FIFE AFP / Archives

The deliberation should be delivered in the afternoon.

© 2021 AFP