Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema was charged on Thursday in an extortion case involving a sex tape featuring fellow French international Mathieu Valbuena, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema was charged on Thursday in an extortion case involving a sex tape featuring fellow French international Mathieu Valbuena, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Benzema, 27, has been charged with “complicity in an attempt to blackmail” and conspiring to commit a criminal act, the prosecutor’s office in Versailles, outside Paris, said.
The charges carry a prison sentence of at least five years.Benzema was also banned from meeting Lyon midfielder Valbuena, a legal constraint that puts in question the two players’ future involvement in the French national team.
The team for matches against Germany and England later this month was to be announced later Thursday. Benzema’s lawyer said the player, a key part of the national team and an important source of goals for Real Madrid, insisted he was innocent.
