Real Madrid star Karim Benzema went on trial in France on Wednesday, as he stands accused of complicity in the attempted blackmail of former teammate Mathieu Valbuena in a case known as the “sex tape affair.”
33-year-old Benzema is suspected of helping a group of alleged blackmailers approach Valbuena in 2015, in an attempt to extort money from the star.
Benzema did not attend the start of proceedings in Versailles for “professional” reasons, according to his lawyer Antoine Vey.
Benzema is being tried alongside four other people over an affair that saw the international striker cast out of the French national team for five and a half years.
Mathieu Valbuena told the court on Wednesday that he had first heard about the blackmail attempt in 2015 when a former teammate contacted him to tell him that a compromising video of him had emerged.
“I felt in danger, my first reflex was to file a criminal complaint,” Valbuena said.
The alleged blackmailers went on to recruit multiple middlemen before enlisting Benzema’s help in the extortion attempt.
On October 6, 2015, Benzema went to see Valbuena in his room at the French national team’s training center at Clairefontaine, west of Paris.
He told his teammate that he could introduce him to a “trustworthy person” to help him “manage” the possible publication of a compromising video.
In what Benzema later claimed was an attempt to help his teammate out of a difficult situation, he told him: “Be careful, ‘Math’, these are very, very heavy criminals.”
Benzema had argued that police used dishonest methods to draw him into the affair.
The maximum sentence for complicity in attempted blackmail is five years in prison and a fine of EUR70,000.
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