Real Madrid star, Karim Benzema went on trial in France on Wednesday accused of complicity in the attempted blackmail of former international teammate Mathieu Valbuena who said he felt “in danger” in a case known as the “sex tape affair”.
Benzema, 33, is suspected of helping a group of alleged blackmailers approach Valbuena in 2015, in an attempt to extort money that rocked the French national side.
The 33-year-old France striker, who scored the fifth and final goal to take Real Madrid to a 5-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stage of the Champions League in Kiev on Tuesday night, did not attend the start of the proceedings in the Paris suburb of Versailles.
His lawyer Antoine Vey said he could not be present for “professional” reasons. Four other people are being tried alongside Benzema over an affair which saw the player cast out of the French team for five-and-a-half years before making a stunning comeback in this year’s European Championship.
The murky affair began when Valbuena handed his smartphone to Axel Angot, a man connected to footballing circles in the southern port city of Marseille, with the request to transfer its contents to a new device. Angot, who is on trial for breach of trust, came across sexually explicit footage on the phone involving Valbuena.
Valbuena, who was also excluded from the French team over the row, told the court on Wednesday the first he heard about the blackmail attempt was when former teammate Djibril Cisse contacted him in May 2015 to tell him a compromising video of him had emerged.
Prosecutors says Angot hatched a plot with a friend, Mustapha Zouaoui, to threaten Valbuena with publication of the footage unless he paid them.Valbuena told the court he was contacted by a man with connections in football, Younes Houass, who was used by Angot and Zouaoi as one of several shadowy middleman, before trying to enlist Benzema’s help. The alleged blackmailers later contacted one of Benzema’s old friends, Karim Zenati, who prosecutors say enlisted Benzema’s help in the extortion attempt.
The maximum sentence for complicity in attempted blackmail is five years in prison and a fine of 70,000 euros ($81,000). Benzema has argued that the undercover police officer used dishonest methods to draw him into the affair.