At the top of his game with his club Real Madrid, the 33-year-old footballer Karim Benzema will have to honor a legal appointment next season, despite his busy sports schedule. According to information from World, the attacker will appear before the criminal court of Versailles for “Complicity in attempted blackmail”, from October 20 to 22, in the context of the “sextape” affair and the alleged blackmail on the French international milieu Mathieu Valbuena.
Indicted for “Complicity in attempted blackmail and participation in a criminal association” in November 2015, Karim Benzema will therefore have to desert the grounds for a few days, next fall, in order to go to his trial. According to the penal code, Karim Benzema faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
“Okay, so when’s the masquerade, eh?” “, he had ironically reacted on Instagram, in January, to the announcement of his referral to the criminal court. ” I’m not surprised. This is an absurd but predictable decision. It is in line with the relentlessness against my client since the origin of this case, estimated, in January, Sylvain Cormier, the lawyer of the footballer. It is edifying to note that the examining magistrate is obliged to distort the elements of the file to try to justify the referral of my client to the court. “
Four other defendants will also appear for “Attempted blackmail”. They are Karim Zenati, a childhood friend of Mr. Benzema, Mustapha Zouaoui, one of the alleged blackmailers, as well as Axel Angot (also dismissed for ” breach of trust “) and Younes Houass, two other alleged blackmailers.
Six recorded telephone conversations
The former Blues striker, Djibril Cissé, was himself dismissed from the head of “Complicity in attempted blackmail”. In July 2020, the prosecution had not requested the dismissal of the former star of AJ Auxerre, placed in police custody in October 2015 and then indicted in 2017. The former player had informed Mr. Valbuena of the existence of the intimate video showing him with his partner.
The case began in June 2015 when Mr. Valbuena filed a complaint after being contacted by an individual who offered to find an arrangement in exchange for the non-disclosure of a “sextape”. A commissioner of the judicial police is then charged by the prosecutor of Versailles to act as intermediaries to identify the presumed blackmailers (Axel Angot, Mustapha Zouaoui and Younes Houass) and to arrest them. Under the pseudonym of “Lukas”, he will multiply exchanges with suspected criminals.
You have 47.99% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.