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Karim Benzema has been sentenced to a year in prison with a one-year suspension and fined
75,000 euros ($84,000) for his role in the attempted extortion of former French national teammate
Mathieu Valbuena with a sex tape, according to the Olympiacos player’s lawyer.
The court went farther than the prosecutor, who had merely asked a 10-month suspended jail
term against Benzema in his verdict on Wednesday.
After the decision, one of Benzema’s lawyers, Sylvain Cormier, remarked outside the courthouse,
“It was plainly proclaimed by the court that Karim Benzema was not aware of the earlier
manipulations and then in the end they concluded, ‘he cannot, not have known,” without any
proof.”
The legal team for Benzema stated that the 33-year-old footballer will be exonerated “in the court
of appeal.”
Paul Albert Iweins, Valbuena’s counsel, declined to comment on Benzema’s punishment.
The case is around the existence of a sex tape featuring Valbuena, who presently plays for
Olympiacos in Greece.
Benzema was accused of forcing Valbuena, who played for the French national team with the
Real Madrid star, to pay blackmailers to keep the footage from being public.
The 33-year-old, who is now La Liga’s top scorer, was initially suspended by the French national
team as a result of the case, but he has since returned for Euro 2020.
Real Madrid and the French Football Federation have both remained silent on the matter.
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