Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema gestures during the Spanish league football match between Real Madrid CF and Elche CF at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, January 23, 2022. — AFP pic
VERSAILLES, March 16 — The appeal of Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema against a one-year suspended sentence for complicity in a bid to blackmail former France team-mate Mathieu Valbuena with a sex tape will be heard on June 30-July 1, a judiciary source said Tuesday.
Benzema was also fined EUR75,000 (RM345,618).
The sentence for the 2015 extortion attempt, which led Benzema to be cast out of the France team for five-and-a-half years, was tougher than prosecutors had requested.
Benzema, 34, was not accused of being behind the extortion attempt but rather of conspiring with the suspected blackmailers by putting pressure on Valbuena to pay them off.
The court in Versailles outside Paris ruled that he had “implicated himself personally, through subterfuge and lies, to convince his team-mate to submit to the blackmail”.
It added that he had shown “no kindness towards Valbuena”, as he had claimed, “just the opposite” and had even appeared to take pleasure in his fellow player’s demise.
Benzema scored twice in a 3-0 win against Real Mallorca in La Liga on Monday to take his career tally to 412 goals, making him the highest-scoring Frenchman in history with two more than Thierry Henry.
He also scored a quickfire hat-trick to help Madrid defeat Paris Saint-Germain 3-2 on aggregate in the Champions League last week. — AFP