Bad news for Karim Benzema. The Court of Versailles has found him guilty of complicity in the blackmail attempt to his teammate Mathieu Valbuena, in the case of the ‘sextape’ of the year 2015.
The French justice considers that the conversation that Benzema had with Valbuena in which the Real Madrid player tried to convince him to contact the blackmailers and not to broadcast his video is a deliberate intervention.
For this reason, Benzema has been sentenced to one year in suspended prison, but he will not have to step in jail except in the case of recidivism, and to pay a fine of 75,000 euros, the highest that the French prosecutor’s office requested.
The rest of the defendants were also found guilty of extortion, not complicity, and were sentenced to 18 months of conditional prison up to 2 and a half years of mandatory sentence.
The footballer’s lawyer has not been happy with the sentence since the defense insists that the conversation that Benzema had with his partner was to help him without ill intention and has declared that they will appeal the verdict: “The court clearly indicated that Benzema was not aware of the preliminary maneuvers. We are quite astonished by this ruling. The appeal is necessary, “he said.
Let us remember that the trial was held in Versailles three weeks ago and while Mathieu Valbuena did go there in person to testify, Benzema chose not to do so, something that was allowed.
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