France, s'est ouvert, mercredi, en l'absence de l'attaquant madrilène, au tribunal correctionnel de Versailles.">
The trial of Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, in the case of the alleged blackmail in the sextape against Mathieu Valbuena, his former teammate in the France team, opened on Wednesday in the absence of the Madrid striker , at the Versailles Criminal Court.
Is Karim Benzema guilty of an attempted blackmail with sextape on Mathieu Valbuena? After years of debate, the trial of this case which is shaking French football opened on Wednesday, October 20 in Versailles, near Paris, in the absence of the main defendant.
At the announcement of the dates of his trial for “complicity in attempted blackmail”, Karim Benzema had nevertheless reacted by writing on Instagram: “Here is finally vamonos (we are going), that the masquerade is extinguished forever.”
Star striker of Real Madrid, candidate declared for the Golden Ball in the wake of his performances with the Blues whom he found in the spring, Benzema, 33, appears with four co-defendants, accused of being the actors of this attempt to blackmail.
His lawyer, Antoine Vey, explained his absence for “professional” reasons: the player, who faces 5 years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine, played a Champions League match in Ukraine on Tuesday evening and must prepare for the “Clasico” against FC Barcelona, Sunday.
An absence that Mathieu Valbuena’s lawyer, who is present in court, has “deplored”.
“For five years, (Benzema) has been proclaiming that he wants a confrontation with my client, I hope that the court will draw the consequences,” added Paul-Albert Iweins.
During the investigation of this thorny case, Benzema’s lawyers had indeed demanded – in vain – a confrontation with the plaintiff, so that the two men could explain themselves in this case where everything is a question of interpretation. Benzema pleads friendly advice to Valbuena while the latter sees it as tortious pressure.
Contradictory statements
On the evening of October 6, 2015, Benzema went to see Valbuena in her room during a rally for the Blues at the Clairefontaine training center (Yvelines). He explains to his teammate that he can “present someone he can trust”, according to the referral order consulted by AFP, to help him “manage” the possible publication of a compromising video.
“Attention Math, they are big, big thugs”, warns the Madrid player. A way to “help” his teammate, he later explained, while Valbuena confessed, he had “the impression of being taken for an idiot”.
After this conservation, Benzema calls his childhood friend Karim Zenati, an intermediary of the alleged blackmailers, and explains to him: “he does not take us seriously”. An “us” which, according to the prosecution, shows that Benzema “includes” in the blackmail enterprise.
On the phone, the two men, tapped, mock Valbuena, Benzema predicting that he will “be thrown tomatoes” if the video is published.
“They are going to piss on him”, answers Benzema who, in another conversation with his friend will qualify his teammate of “tarlouze”. A qualifier “friendly”, according to him.
Karim Zenati, “in no way lent his support, in conscience, to an offense of blackmail”, explains to AFP his lawyer Emmanuel Mercinier, who hopes that “the court will ignore the celebrity of the protagonists and the agitation media that follows “.
The maximum penalty – theoretically – incurred by the former glory of Olympique Lyonnais, prosecuted for complicity in attempted blackmail, is five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 70,000 euros.
Four other defendants
At his side on the dock, four other men (Angot, Zouaoui, Houass and Zenati) are accused of attempted blackmail. Axel Angot is being prosecuted for breach of trust. It is with this man, who gravitates in the middle of Marseille football, that everything starts.
In 2014, Valbuena gave him his phone to transfer his data to a new device. Axel Angot then comes across a video of a sexual nature of the midfielder, spent at Olympique de Marseille and Lyon. With a friend, Mustapha Zouaoui, he intends to put pressure on Valbuena to monetize the non-broadcast of the video.
The two men go through the former international Djibril Cissé, who refuses to put them in contact with Valbuena and warns the latter of the existence of the sextape.
They then ask Younes Houass, who knows the world of football well, to intervene. It is he who contacts Valbuena before being put in touch with “Luka”, an undercover policeman who acts as an intermediary for the complainant. Then follows, according to one of the lawyers in the case, a “dialogue of the deaf” between the two, Younes Houass not making any request for money and not even in possession of the sextape.
Several times it is “Luka” who relaunches Houass, which, according to the defense, is a provocation to the offense. An argument that will ultimately be invalidated, after long legal twists and turns, by the Court of Cassation.
Faced with the Houass-Luka impasse, the alleged blackmailers, “real nickeled feet”, still according to a lawyer in the case, then dismiss Younes Houass from their project and contact Karim Zenati, Benzema’s childhood friend. The latter then comes into play, which is now worth him to appear in court.
With AFP
– .
