Karim Benzema will pay for blackmail – Sport – Kommersant

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Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema was sentenced to one year suspended imprisonment and fined € 75,000. Back in 2015, the defendants in the criminal case got the phone of the latter with a video recording of the sex of Mr. Valbuena and a certain young person. In exchange for the phone, the blackmailers demanded € 150,000 from Mathieu Valbuena. Note that despite the verdict, which will still be appealed, Karim Benzema is not prevented from playing for the French national team.

On Wednesday, the Versailles court announced its verdict in a case opened back in 2015. Then some attackers got their hands on Mathieu Valbuena’s old mobile phone. It contained a video of him having sex with a young woman. The blackmailers (in total, taking into account Benzema, five defendants were involved in the case) demanded that the player pay them € 150 thousand, threatening to distribute the record. And when the footballer refused, they attracted one of the relatives of Karim Benzema to cooperation, persuading him to convince the striker to facilitate blackmail. The exchange of the phone for money took place on October 5 at the base of the French national team in Clairfontaine. It was under the control of the police, whom Valbuena contacted immediately after receiving threats, and soon all the suspects, including Karim Benzema, were arrested. But almost immediately they were released on bail.

Karim Benzema’s status in this story has long remained controversial. It took the prosecution many years to prove that Benzema had initiated the payment of the money to the blackmailers.

His defense insisted that he only gave Valbuena friendly advice on how to get out of the delicate situation with the least loss. However, the court did not find understanding for the position of the lawyers. As a result, Benzema was sentenced to a year of suspended imprisonment and a fine of € 75,000. He was ordered to pay Valbuena € 80,000 as compensation for moral damages. Other defendants in the case were also found guilty. Their sentences will be announced at a later date.

It should be noted that Karim Benzema got out of an unpleasant story with minimal losses. The penalty for a player whose salary at Real Madrid exceeds € 12 million per year is insignificant. At the same time, the verdict, which, according to the players’ lawyers, has not yet entered into force and will be protested, does not prevent him from playing either for Real Madrid or for the French national team. “I don’t know what Karim and his lawyers will decide, but as far as the federation is concerned, there is no change,” said FFF President Noel Le Grae L’Equipe. “There are no obstacles to his continuing to play for France.”

Arnold Kabanov

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