Last trial. On November 24th, the verdict on real star Karim Benzema will follow.
Karim Benzema also stayed away from the trial on the third and last day of his trial in Versailles. He had given professional reasons for this, as the French star striker had to prepare for the next matches of his club Real Madrid in Spain. He was accused of complicity in trying to blackmail his former national team colleague Mathieu Valbuena with a sex video.
Suspended sentence?
The prosecution had asked for a ten-month suspended sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros for Benzema. After all, the 33-year-old is “a bearer of moral values and hope,” said public prosecutor Eyraud. Lower fines and prison terms of up to four years were requested for four other defendants. The judgments will be made on November 24th.
The issues that were negotiated go back to 2015. Valbuena, now a professional at Olympiacos Piraeus, entrusts his mobile phone to the tech tinkerer Axel Angot, who is well-connected among soccer stars, in order to restore lost data. Angot came across a video that showed Valbuena having sex with a woman. In order to settle debts, Angot and his friend Mustapha Zouaoui came up with the idea to demand 150,000 euros from Valbuena for not publishing the video.
As a result, your victim should be urged to turn to a middleman to have it deleted for a lesser amount. Several men were assigned to Valbuena, including Benzema, who was supposed to bring Valbuena into contact with a childhood friend, Karim Zenati. “He insisted that I meet someone who would be like a brother to him so that he could solve my problem,” said Valbuena in court.
Career kink
Benzema did not talk about money, but it was clear that this “person of trust” would not help him for free. Valbuena filed a complaint, the affair became public and meant that neither of them was at the home European Championship in 2016. Benzema only returned to the Equipe Tricolore this year.
The process could not clarify why the Real star had got involved in the dirty game. Benzema's lawyer Sylvain Cormier, who had called for an acquittal, called his client a victim: “He did not know the context, he only spoke to Valbuena once to offer him help.” Valbuena testified that Benzema did not want to help him. Prosecutor Marès also said he was hardly a “good Samaritan”.
#football Affaire de la #Sextape: jugement le 24 novembre pour Karim #Benzema https://t.co/DfzzQlj8AG pic.twitter.com/2YDn8GVFAu
– Midi Libre Sports (@MidiLibreSports) October 22, 2021
