Benzema In his best sporting moment, before the trial for blackmail to Valbuena
What is the Valbuena case and why does it splash Benzema?
Accused The others involved in the 'sextape' of Valbuena
On October 8, 2015,
Karim Benzema
and
Mathieu Valbuena started
the friendly match between France and Armenia in Nice (4-0). It would be the last with the
Valbuena
bleus
, who is now 37 years old and hastens his career at the Greek Olympiakos. The 9 of Real Madrid was not called up again until this summer. On the pitch, no one would say that the players, hitherto on good terms, had had a tense conversation two days before the game at Clairefontaine, the gathering place for the French national team, which would mark their lives.
Did Benzema intervene to advise his partner or was he the spokesman for the blackmailers who wanted to get € 100,000 out of Valbuena in exchange for destroying a sex video that they had taken from the footballer's mobile? That question, and the guilt or not of several subjects whose participation in the blackmail is more evident, must be resolved between now and Friday in the Correctional Court of Versailles. Sentencing could take months.
Benzema does not attend the hearing.
The day before he played in Kiev and on Sunday he has an appointment at the Camp Nou, his lawyers justified.
The prosecution and the president of the court accepted the apology.
Valbuena, no: «We have waited for this trial for six years.
We are all, Karim is missing.
It is a pity".
His lawyer was more explicit: «We have been waiting for a confrontation with Valbuena for five years.
We think Benzema is afraid of it.
He puts his sports career before his obligations to Justice.
Mathieu Valbuena, on the first day of the trial.REUTERS
That October 6, 2015, Benzema asked Valbuena for a solo meeting.
They saw each other for 20 or 25 minutes in the Madridista's room.
As the victim told the police, her interlocutor told her at the outset:
“Math, there is a video.
Hot.
I have seen it, be careful Math, they are very very bad guys »
.
Valbuena stated that Benzema claimed that he could "introduce him to someone he trusted to handle" the matter.
The complicity of Karim Zenati
The victim of the
sextape
testified in court that he came out of the interview "scared" and "upset."
He admitted that the madridista was not aggressive although he was "insistent" to see the intermediary.
Valbuena also told the court that Benzema made no mention of money but added: "When a matter like this is settled it is not in exchange for tickets to a match."
What Benzema did not know in his day is that Valbuena had reported several previous calls to the police demanding money not to spread his video having sex with his partner.
The police intercepted a telephone conversation in which Benzema gave an account of his interview with Valbuena to his childhood friend
,
Karim Zenati
.
KB.- I've already seen the guy.
I think he doesn't take us seriously.
KZ.- Won't you loosen up?
Benzema explains to his interlocutor that he has assured the blackmailed man that there are no copies of the video and that he told him:
"If you want the video to be destroyed, my friend comes to see you from Lyon
.
"
KZ.- We are here to fix it.
If he doesn't want to, let him get by with the piranhas.
KB.- They are going to piss on him.
The piranhas are going to eat it, bro.
The two Karim have been friends since they were kids in the Lyonese neighborhood of Bron. One made a career in soccer. The other, on the shady side of the street. Since he was first arrested for robbery at age 12, his mugshot has 24 mentions. He has been in jail for armed robbery and trafficking in cannabis resin. But Benzema has not forgotten him. And he participates in his reintegration: he hires him as an administrative assistant in his Best of Benzema company with a net salary of € 3,000 per month. Before, in 2014, he invited him to the World Cup in Brazil.
A month after the meeting between Benzema and Valbuena, the two Karim are detained by the police.
Before the Court of Versailles, the footballer is accused of "complicity in an attempt to blackmail
.
"
He can be sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000.
It is convenient to know that against the sentence, which could take months, it is possible to appeal.
Although he was convicted in both instances,
Benzema in principle would not have to go to prison, for lack of a record
.
The other defendants
His
brother
Zenati and the other four defendants must answer for attempted blackmail. They are these, in chronological order of intervention in the matter:
Axel Angot
, a boy for all of the football world of Marseille. Valbuena asked him to transfer the data from his mobile to a new one. He caught the filthy video and thought it would help him pay a € 25,000 debt. Also charged with breach of trust.
Mustapha Zouaoui
, friend of the previous one and mastermind of the plot.
As they were both acquaintances of Valbuena, they thought of third parties to contact and blackmail the owner of the video.
Among them, a soccer player driver in Marseille,
Younes Houass,
who contacted the soccer player and the policeman posing as a Valbuena representative after filing this complaint.
Zouaoui went to Madrid for a meal between Benzema and his
brother
Zenati.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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