Football
Benzema found guilty in Valbuena sex tape case! Does he have to go to jail?
In his current form, Karim Benzema is one of the best footballers in the world and is among the candidates to win the Ballon d’Or. However, he also has to deal with problems in his personal life, as he is in trouble with the law.
In his current form, Karim Benzema is one of the best footballers in the world and is among the candidates to win the Ballon d’Or. However, he also has to deal with problems in his personal life, as he is in trouble with the law.
For more than five years now, there has been an ongoing feud between Benzema and his former teammate Mathieu Valbuena. The Real Madrid striker was accused of helping to blackmail his teammate and was alleged to have arranged for Valbuena to pay for a personal sex tape.
Benzema defended himself by saying that he did not cooperate with the extortionists, only advising Valbuena to hand over the money, saying they were dangerous people.
Now the court has finally delivered its verdict. Karim Benzema has been found guilty of being an accessory to attempting to blackmail his former teammate Mathieu Valbuena with a sex video. He was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence, which he will have to serve if he repeats it, and a fine of 75,000 euros.
The Versailles court held that Benzema’s conversation with Valbuena, in which he tried to persuade him to come into contact with the blackmailers, constituted a “deliberate” intervention to make the then Lyon footballer pay for preventing the video from being broadcast.
So, on the face of it, things still worked out well for Benzema, as he was facing jail time and would earn the fine (roughly 2 million crowns) in no time at Real Madrid. Still, his lawyer is unhappy with the court’s decision.
“The court clearly indicated that Benzema did not know about the preliminary manoeuvres. We are quite astonished by this judgment. An appeal is necessary,” Benzema’s lawyer told Marca newspaper that he will immediately start preparing an appeal.
Source: Marca