Real Madrid player Benzema goes on trial in sextape case

Actual Madrid ahead Karim Benzema goes on trial in France on Wednesday accused of complicity within the tried blackmail of former worldwide teammate Mathieu Valbuena in a case referred to as the “sextape affair”.

Benzema, 33, stands accused of serving to a bunch of alleged blackmailers to strategy Valbuena in an try to extort cash. 4 different males are additionally on trial.

The case price each Benzema and 37-year-old Valbuena their place within the French nationwide group, though Benzema was restored to the lineup for this yr’s European championship.

The case centres on the position that Benzema is suspected of enjoying within the murky affair six years in the past, which began when Valbuena handed his smartphone to Axel Angot, a person linked to footballing circles within the southern port metropolis of Marseille, with the request to switch its contents to a brand new system.

Angot, now on trial for breach of belief, got here throughout sexually specific footage on the telephone involving Valbuena.

Prosecutors say he then explored methods — along with a good friend, Mustapha Zouaoui — to strategy Valbuena and threaten publication of the footage until he paid them.

Valbuena obtained a number of calls in June 2015 threatening publicity of the footage, which he reported to police.

The blackmailers then went to former French worldwide Djibril Cisse, who refused to behave as their messenger, as an alternative of warning Valbuena of what was brewing.

Cisse, who performed for Premier League membership Liverpool throughout his profession, was initially charged within the case, however later cleared.

What adopted is an imbroglio involving a number of shadowy middlemen, considered one of whom turned out to be an secret agent known as “Luka” positioned by police who had been attempting to get proof earlier than taking motion towards the protagonists.

Ultimately, the presumed blackmailers went to considered one of Benzema’s previous mates, Karim Zenati, who prosecutors say enlisted Benzema’s assist to achieve Valbuena.

– ‘Very heavy criminals’ –

On Oct 6, 2015, Benzema went to see Valbuena in his room on the French nationwide group’s coaching centre at Clairefontaine, west of Paris.

He advised his teammate that he might introduce him to a “reliable individual” to assist him “handle” the doable publication of a compromising video.

In what Benzema later claimed was an try to assist his teammate out of a troublesome state of affairs, he advised him: “Watch out ‘Math’, these are very, very heavy criminals.”

Benzema then known as his childhood good friend Karim Zenati, who was by then performing as an middleman for the alleged blackmailers, and advised him in a dialog wiretapped by police: “He’s not taking us critically.”

Prosecutors say that the phrase “us” proves that Benzema noticed himself as a part of the blackmail scheme.

Valbuena mentioned later that the dialog left him with the sensation that he was “being performed for a idiot”.

“If he doesn’t need us to deal with this for him, he’ll should take care of the piranhas,” Zenati mentioned, claiming later that each one he wished to do was alert Valbuena to the existence of the video.

Benzema replied that “they’ll piss on him”, and in a subsequent dialog referred to Valbuena with a derogatory time period for a gay, which he mentioned later was meant “in a pleasant method”.

The utmost sentence for complicity in tried blackmail is 5 years in jail and a nice of 70,000 euros ($81,000).

Benzema has argued that the undercover police officer used dishonest strategies to attract him into the affair.

It was unclear on Monday whether or not the striker, who’s scheduled to play for Actual Madrid towards Shakhtar Donetsk in a Champions League match in Ukraine on Tuesday, will attend the trial. His attorneys didn’t reply to AFP’s requests for clarification.

Valbuena, who now performs for Greek membership Olympiakos, will likely be current, his lawyer mentioned.

The sextape case precipitated Benzema to be exiled from France’s nationwide soccer group for years — a choice he known as ‘racist’ — however the striker returned to “Les Bleus” this yr in time for the European championship.

France coach Didier Deschamps mentioned this month that “he’s not the identical individual, he’s matured”.

Benzema has scored a complete of 243 targets for Actual and stays a key a part of their aspect.

AFP