Benzema's trial will be from October 20 to 21
The trial to the French footballer of Real Madrid Karim Benzema for alleged complicity in the blackmail of Mathieu Valbuena with a sex tape It will be held from October 20 to 21, judicial sources informed EFE.
The process will take place in the court of Versailles and, If Benzema is found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. and a fine of 75,000 euros.
Four other defendants will sit on the bench with Benzema, sources indicated.
The trial will thus conclude a long case that began in the summer of 2014, when Axel Angot, a technician whom Valbuena asked for help with his mobile phone, obtained a video with sexual content in which that player appeared with his partner.
The prosecution maintains that Angot and his friend Mustapha Zouaoui contacted the footballer in June 2015 to demand money from him in exchange for not spreading the images. However, Valbuena refused to pay and reported the facts to the police.
Meanwhile, the alleged blackmailers contacted another player, Djibril Cissé, to convince Valbuena that he should pay. As they were unsuccessful, they turned to Karim Zenati, Benzema's childhood friend, to obtain the Madridista's mediation.
On October 5, 2015, during a concentration of the French team, Benzema went to Valbuena's room and recommended that he pay to avoid problems.
Benzema maintains that he gave him advice from a friend, but the prosecution considers that it was a measure of pressure, for which he was charged on November 5, 2018 with a crime of complicity in blackmail. On January 7, the Versailles prosecution finally decided to bring the Madrid attacker to trial.
The 33-year-old footballer has not been called up to the French national team since late 2015. when the case broke out.
Given his great form in recent weeks, the French media have once again argued about whether or not national coach Didier Deschamps should back down from his decision not to call him up.
