Benzema pleads friendly advice to Valbuena. The latter sees it as tortious pressure. The Versailles Criminal Court will decide this Wednesday, November 24, this question which earned the 33-year-old star striker to be tried for complicity in attempted blackmail on his 37-year-old former teammate in the sextape affair.
The Real star, absent from the hearing in October, will also be absent when the judgment is read, due to his sporting schedule. As the Complainant Mathieu Valbuena, who plays in Greece at club Olympiakos FC Piraeus, according to lawyers. The public prosecutor had requested ten months suspended prison sentence and a € 75,000 fine against Benzema, who faces up to five years in prison and a € 75,000 fine.
A man who wants to “arrange”
The case began in June 2015, when Mathieu Valbuena was contacted by a man who wanted to « s’arranger » with him in exchange for not showing a sextape. He files a complaint. A commissioner of the judicial police of Versailles was then assigned, under the name of Lukas, to play the intermediary in order to identify the presumed blackmailers: Axel Angot, Mustapha Zouaoui and Younes Houass, who gravitate in the world of football.
The exchanges multiply but without success. And the police will identify shortly after, thanks to telephone tapping, Karim Zenati, childhood friend of Benzema. It is to him that the blackmailers are turning, according to the survey. They allegedly asked him to contact the French striker to discuss the sextape with Valbuena.
Valbuena “does not take us seriously”, says Benzema
The former French international “Discover then, according to his lawyer, that Karim Benzema whom he considered as his friend is in cahoots with those who blackmail him ”. He did mention the video during a rally of the Blues in Clairefontaine (Yvelines), in October 2015. Only ” for help “, according to his statements. Explaining “To be able to introduce him to someone you trust” for ” to manage “ the situation.
Immediately after this conversation, he telephoned his friend Zenati, telling him: Valbuena “Don’t take us seriously”. a ” we “ which, according to the prosecution, shows that Benzema “Is included in this team, is associated in this project” of blackmail. “He is not a Good Samaritan who came to help, he acted to allow the negotiations to achieve their ends and the blackmailers to receive money”, declared during an indictment with two voices the prosecutor Ségolène Marés.
From 18 months suspended to four years in prison required against other defendants
Prosecutors also requested four years in prison and a € 15,000 fine against Mustapha Zouaoui, considered to be the “brain” of this case. Also two years in prison and a € 5,000 fine against Karim Zenati, Benzema’s childhood friend. Another 18 months in prison and a € 15,000 fine against Axel Angot, who found the video and kept it for later use.
Finally, 18 months suspended prison sentence and a € 5,000 fine were demanded against the intermediary Younes Houass. Throughout the debates, the respondents portrayed a world watered by gamblers’ money where are exchanged « services » and pressure shots to sell luxury watches, leather goods or sextapes.
A “dependent investigation” pointed out by the defense
Karim Benzema’s defense pleaded for acquittal, criticizing a “Investigation charge” against his client. “The intentional element of the offense” criticized for the 33-year-old striker is not “Characterized”, hammered Me Antoine Vey, believing that the file was built on the ” feeling “ of the complainant. The lawyer also denounced the “Assumptions and speculations” advanced by the prosecution. In general, all the lawyers stigmatized a weak file, which in their eyes did not deserve such treatment from the prosecution and such echo in the press.
Will this judgment have an impact on the performance of Benzema, very successful with the Blues and very serious candidate for the Ballon d’Or, whose winner will be known on November 29? Two weeks ago, the boss of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, explained that the Real striker “Would not be excluded” of the France team in the event of “Judicial sanction”. Asked about this question in early October, coach Didier Deschamps remained elusive, repeating that he was “Sports choices” when summoning his players. As for Real Madrid, it seems very unlikely that they will sanction their best player, whom they have always supported in this matter.
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