Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema will face trial for involvement in blackmailing former French team player Matthieu Valbuena in a “sex tape” scandal, a prosecutor’s office said Versailles Thursday.
Benzema suspects he pressured his former national teammate to pay black salesmen who threatened to release a close-up video featuring Valbuena. He will go to court on conspiracy charges of attempted blackmail, the prosecutor’s office said in a message to The Associated Press. A date for the trial has not yet been set.
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Benzema, 33, the most progressive Frenchman of his generation, has been banned from the national team since November 2015 for his involvement in the scandal, despite regular appearances with Real Madrid.
Investigators who accused Benzema believe a childhood friend asked him that year to mediate and force Valbuena to deal directly with the blacks. Instead, Valbuena called the police.
Four others will also go to court in the case. Benzema denies wrongdoing.
“This decision is as unusual as it was predictable,” Benzema’s lawyer Sylvain Cormier told the AP, denying “persecution” against the player.
When the story broke, Benzema opposed full criticism and then Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the former Lyon player had no “place” in the national team. Former French President Francois Hollande was quoted as saying in a book that Benzema was not an example of morality.
Benzema, who is of Algerian descent, had a good relationship with France coach Didier Deschamps. But he accused Deschamps of taking in pressure from racists when the coach decided not to include him in the squad for the 2016 European Championship.
Benzema has not played for France since scoring twice in a 4-0 win over Armenia in October 2015, bringing his overall goals to 27 goals in 81 internationals. He has over 250 goals for Real Madrid and has won four Champions League titles with the Spanish club.