It was from Moldova that Karim Benzema learned, Wednesday, November 24, of the judgment of the Versailles Criminal Court: he was playing the same evening, with his club Real Madrid, in a Champions League match against Sheriff Tiraspol.
“He is totally focused on his work, he did it very well, I saw him very calm before the match, and very well during”Spanish club coach Carlo Ancelotti said after the match of his striker, who scored his team’s third goal. “Stay focused on what I love the most. “ Karim Benzema, he was satisfied with a small sentence on his Twitter account after the game.
In the morning, the star striker of the France team was found guilty of “complicity in attempted blackmail” on his ex-partner with the Blues Mathieu Valbuena, and sentenced to one year in prison suspended and 75,000 euros fine, in the case of the “sextape”. If the summary of the judgment read during the hearing by the president, Christophe Morgan, sounded like a severe charge against Karim Benzema, who immediately appealed, the details of the expected, that The world consulted, is even more so.
“Unconditional friendship” brought “to Karim Zenati”
“It is established by the procedure and the debates that Mr. Benzema, in response to the request of his friend Karim Zenati, and informed of the blackmail maneuvers to which his teammate Mathieu Valbuena was subject, which remained unsuccessful, agreed to lend his support in these maneuvers in order to convince his teammate to give in to blackmail and pay a sum of money ”, can we read in this 72-page document.
The judges, who went beyond the requisitions of the prosecution, return in particular to the evening of October 6, 2015, during which Karim Benzema had a private interview, at the headquarters of the Blues, in Clairefontaine (Yvelines), with Mr. Valbuena, in order to discuss with him the intimate video, which had been stolen by two master singers from Marseille, Axel Angot and Mustapha Zouaoui.
“It is established (…) that Mr. Benzema, during the half-hour interview in his room that he had asked his team-mate, tried to persuade him to submit to blackmail and to get into exclusive contact with his friend Mr. Zenati in order to settle a sum of money, excluding any other intermediary and the police. According to the court, Mr. Benzema “Strictly applied the directives of Mr. Zenati”.
Regarding Karim Zenati, childhood friend of Karim Benzema and sentenced to fifteen months in prison, the judges believe that he was “Fully aware of the blackmail in which he was going to participate to the detriment of a player from the France team” and “Without hesitation involved in these maneuvers his friend Karim Benzema, who seemed to be the best able to convince Mr. Valbuena to give in to blackmail and to hand over money”.
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