Benzema will have to sit on the bench for the The Real Madrid striker will be tried for attempted blackmail with a video of sexual content of his partner in the French team Mathieu Valbuena, the Versailles prosecutor’s office announced to AFP on Thursday.The case dates back to Dec 2015, when two men who had an alleged intimate video of Valbuena with his wife tried to blackmail him and, given his refusal, contacted a childhood friend of Benzema to obtain the mediation of the Madridista, who spoke with the victim during a concentration of the French team.The white Nine will be tried for having allegedly incited his former partner to pay the extortionists. Four other are implicated in the case for attempted blackmail and one of them also for breach of trust.
The decision to bring him to trial is an absurd and unfair cruelty,the player’s lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, told Efe for whom Benzema has nothing to reproach himself with in this summary.Cormier stressed that the decision of the Versailles correctional court at least definitively abandons the possibility of trying Benzema on the most serious accusation of association of criminals.
The lawyer also regretted that the investigating judge has distorted the facts because Valbuena himself recognized that in the controversial conversation with Benzema no money was discussed. Even so, The Lawyer acknowledged that they are not surprised by the decision to prosecute his client after how the investigation of the case has been developed, although he trusted the explanations that they will give in court.
THE MADRID STRIKER ADVISED HIS TEAMMATE IN 2015 TO PAY TO AVOID THE DISSEMINATION OF A SEX VIDEO
The events began when in the summer of 2014 Axel Angot and Mustapha Zouaoui, who worked for Valbuena in Marseille, seized the video with sexual content in which the player appeared with his wife. Through a common acquaintance, according to the accusation they came into contact with the real madrid striker in June 2015 to demand money in exchange for not spreading it. Valbuena refused to pay and reported the facts to the cops.Meanwhile, the alleged blackmailers contacted another player, Djibrill Cisse, to persuade Valbuena that he should pay. As they were unsuccessful, they turned to Karim Zenati, Benzema’s childhood friend, to obtain the Madridista’s mediation.
In October 2015, during a concentration for the French team, Benzema went to Valbuena’s room and told him that it would be better if he paid to avoid problems. The Madrid Striker maintains that he gave him a friend’s advice, but the accusation considered that it was a measure of pressure, for which he was charged on November 5, 2018 with a crime of complicity in blackmail, for which he can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.The case meant that Benzema, has not been called up with the French team since the end of 2015, despite the fact that even the Federation affirms that there are no vetoes against him. Despite this, the player has a brilliant 81 games and 27 goals with the bleus.
