Karim Benzema admits to lying over sex tape

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has admitted to lying to fellow France international Mathieu Valbuena over a sex video at the centre of an alleged blackmailing attempt, Le Parisien reported on Friday.

The French daily quoted extracts from Benzema’s hearing with a judge on Jan 28 in which the player reportedly said he did not watch Valbuena’s sex tape after telling the Olympique Lyonnais forward that he did.

“I should have told him I had not seen it,” Benzema was quoted as telling the judge.

“I was showing off, I was acting...It’s like when you describe a movie you have not seen. I have never seen that video.”

Benzema, who has been under formal investigation since last November, has also been suspended indefinitely from the France team. Benzema approached Valbuena about the tape during a France training camp last October.

Valbuena was quoted as telling a French judge last November: “He told me he had seen it, he swore on his daughter’s life, telling me it was hot.”

Benzema’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, Three of the suspects charged in the sex-tape blackmail affair involving have been released from custody, the public prosecutor in Versailles, near Paris, said on Friday.

Axel Angot and Younes Houass were released from prison on Wednesday while Mustapha Zouaoui was released on Friday. The three have been released as French law prevents suspects being held in pre-trial detention for longer than four months. A fourth man Karim Zenati still remains in custody, the prosecutor confirmed.

The sex tape affair has rocked the France squad ahead of Euro 2016, which the country is set to host.