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The prosecution requested Thursday in Versailles ten months suspended sentence and a 75,000 euros fine against Karim Benzema, indicted for complicity in attempted blackmail in the “sextape affair” of Mathieu Valbuena. The second day of the trial also shed light on the “parasitic football environment” and its dubious intermediaries.
The prosecution requested, Thursday, October 21 in Versailles, ten months suspended prison sentence and a 75,000 euro fine against Karim Benzema, prosecuted for complicity in attempted blackmail in the “sextape affair” of which the alleged victim is his former teammate in the France team, Mathieu Valbuena.
Against the four other defendants, prosecuted in this case for attempted blackmail, the public prosecutor requested sentences ranging from 18 months in prison suspended to four years in prison.
They “pollute the football world”
The second day of the trial also gave the opportunity to shed light on the “parasitic football environment” where intermediaries with questionable morals gravitate, such as those who are currently on the bench.
Throughout the debates of the day, the four defendants present depicted a world watered by players’ money and where “services” and pressure shots are exchanged, against luxury watches, leather goods or sextapes.
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Thus, Axel Angot is a “janitor”, handyman, gifted in computers. Close to Mathieu Valbuena, it was he who recovered the video of the intimate antics when the former international gave him his phone.
His friend Mustapha Zouaoui, the “linchpin” of the project, admits to having already “rendered him a service” to another international, Djibril Cissé, by “settling” a “problem” with a sextape, before receiving 15,000 euros.
Younes Houass, he plays the intermediaries. He got in touch with Mathieu Valbuena to “arrange (his) interests”.
“The voice of these three who pollute the world of football has entered, directly or indirectly, in a room of Clairefontaine”, the training center of the Blues, thundered Me Benjamin Peyrelevade, the lawyer for the French Football Federation (FFF), in an allusion to the role allegedly played by Karim Benzema, commissioned by the blackmailers to Mathieu Valbuena.
The lawyer for the FFF regrets that “the voice of these three, who pollute the world of football, has succeeded in entering a room in Clairefontaine”. The Federation asks for 1 euro in compensation and 6000 euros according to article 75-1
– Eloise Bartoli (@Eloise_Bartoli) October 21, 2021
The FFF, civil party in this case, “must protect its players”, he said, welcoming the attitude of Mathieu Valbuena, the “first player who has the courage to say no, to resist, to file a complaint” .
Me Benjamin Peyrelevade asks that all the defendants who will be condemned by the court – therefore possibly Karim Benzema – symbolically compensate the FFF by paying one euro each.
“I apologize from the bottom of my heart, I regret it to death”
Me Paul-Albert Iweins, Mathieu Valbuena’s lawyer, thundered against this “parasitic football environment”, which takes advantage of “young boys” and wealthy. He requested 150,000 euros in compensation in the name of moral damage.
At midday, Mathieu Valbuena, who spoke for a long time on Wednesday about the consequences of this blackmail attempt for him and for his career, left Versailles and joined Frankfurt, where his Olympiakos team played in the evening. a Europa League match.
He took the plane with Mustapha Zouaoui’s apologies in mind. “I apologize from the bottom of my heart, I regret it to death,” said the latter, considered the “brain” of this company. Very talkative in front of the press and in the courtroom, he had nevertheless made fun of the player on Wednesday at the bar.
Prosecuted for “complicity in attempted blackmail” on Mathieu Valbuena, Karim Benzema does not attend the debates, his lawyers having cited the “professional” imperatives of the Real Madrid star.
After the debates on Wednesday evening, one of the advice of the striker of the France team, Me Sylvain Cormier, spoke to journalists about Mathieu Valbuena’s “resentment” and “jealousy” against the Blues striker.
“His calculation is simple: ‘Me, I was dismissed, I no longer found the France team, and sportingly I declined’ and then opposite, there is Karim Benzema who flies over world football current, “the lawyer also commented.
The hearing was suspended after the requisitions of the public prosecutor and must resume with the start of the defense pleadings.
With AFP
.
