French footballer Karim Benzema was held for questioning on Wednesday in connection with alleged blackmail over a sex tape featuring teammate Mathieu Valbuena, a source close to the probe said.
French footballer Karim Benzema was held for questioning on Wednesday in connection with alleged blackmail over a sex tape featuring teammate Mathieu Valbuena, a source close to the probe said.
The Real Madrid and France star arrived with a hood pulled over his head at the police station in Versailles, near Paris, early Wednesday and was placed in detention, the local prosecutor confirmed.
Investigators are trying determine the extent of Benzema’s involvement in a months-long attempt to extort money from fellow French international Valbuena after a sex tape found its way into the hands of suspected blackmailers.
According to the source, Benzema mentioned the intimate video to Valbuena when the French team met for training near Paris in early October, ahead of matches against Armenia and Denmark.
The star striker Benzema, who plays for Real Madrid learned of the video from a friend of his brother in Lyon who had been contacted by the suspected blackmailers with a view to involving Benzema in their scheme, the source added.
Police are seeking to determine whether Benzema was just teasing Valbuena when he mentioned the tape, or trying to make him pay the group of suspected blackmailers, who were charged and put in detention last month.
