Desk Report
Published: 24 Nov 2021, 09:18 pm
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema || Photo: Collected
France
and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has been found guilty of conspiring to
blackmail a fellow French footballer with a sex tape.
A
judge handed Benzema a one-year suspended jail term and ordered him to pay a €75,000 (£63,000; $84,000) fine, reports BBC.
Benzema,
33, was one of five people put on trial last month over an attempt to extort
Frenchman Mathieu Valbuena.
The
scandal has stunned the football community in France and both players lost
their national team places.
The
case dates back to June 2015, when the two footballers were at a French
training camp.
At
the camp, Benzema put pressure on Valbuena to pay off the blackmailers, whom he
had conspired with to act as an intermediary, prosecutors said.
Benzema
has always denied the allegations and insisted he was only trying to help
Valbuena get rid of the compromising video.
The
player has since returned to the France team and is expected to start for Real
Madrid on Wednesday night when they play FC Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions
League.
Benzema
was not present in court in Versailles for the verdict, nor was Valbuena who plays
for Greek club Olympiakos.
Four
of Benzema's co-defendants in the trial were also found guilty on Wednesday.
They were handed jail sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to two-and-a-half
years in prison.
Benzema's
lawyers said they would appeal his conviction. "The reaction is ultimately
an angry one to this judgment which is perfectly contradictory," his
lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, told reporters outside court.
But
when delivering the verdict, the judge said Benzema had "implicated
himself personally, through subterfuge and lies, to convince his teammate to
submit to the blackmail".
Benzema
made a surprise comeback to the French national team in May, five years after
he was exiled from the side when the allegations first surfaced in 2015.
But
last month, the French football federation said a guilty verdict would not
necessarily jeopardise Benzema's position in the national side.
Since
being called back by France manager Didier Deschamps, Benzema has been in
prolific form, scoring nine times in 13 games for his country. He's also scored
10 goals this season for his club, Real Madrid, who are yet to comment on the
verdict.
For
his performances on the pitch, Benzema was named a candidate for the Ballon
d'Or footballer of the year award which will be announced next week.