There will be a legal explanation between Karim Benzema and Damien Rieu. The Reconquest activist, who supported Éric Zemmour during the 2022 presidential campaign, will be tried on June 20 for defamation of the Real Madrid striker. A trial in the sixth press chamber of the Lyon court which logically follows the complaint filed by the Ballon d’Or 2022 and relayed by Rieu himself on social networks in May 2022.
What does the Real Madrid player reproach the identity activist? Two tweets published in the fall of 2020, still online on the social network. In the first, Damien Rieu broadcasts a photo of Karim Benzema with the imam of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) Nourdine Mamoune. Interesting to discover that @benzema frequents imam Nourdine Mamoune who has just been searched (an operation carried out three days after the assassination of Samuel Paty which had not led to any prosecution), then wrote the candidate for the 2022 legislative elections in the Alpes-Maritimes. Strongly that justice is also interested in the financing of the mosques of Bron (city of the Rhone from where is originating Benzema). »
“He will finally answer for his actions in court”
In a second tweet, posted online in November 2020, Damien Rieu posts the photo of the player with his finger raised towards the sky, a sign of faith in the Islam of which he is a practitioner, next to that of jihadists performing the same gesture. “I think @benzema wants to send us a message,” he said at the time. Two publications which had led Karim Benzema and his counsel, Me Sylvain Cormier, to take legal action.
“Damien Lefèvre (the real surname of Damien Rieu) has abused this feeling of impunity for too long with his pseudonym and his efforts to conceal his real address, explains the advice of the player who claims to have encountered difficulties in locating the interested in this procedure. He will finally answer for his actions in court. »
“I’m not saying he’s a jihadist”
“I will put forward my arguments, assumes the person concerned, acquitted on appeal in 2020 in a trial around an anti-migrant operation in the Alps in 2018. Karim Benzema is proselytizing Islam by showing himself in photo in Mecca, what he has the right to do, but he sends worrying signals for young people because he is very followed online. He liked Khabib Nurmagomedov’s anti-France post (an Instagram post from October 2020 where the MMA fighter attacked in Russian “the enemies of Islam”. Damien Rieu had posted a screenshot showing a like of the footballer on this post. This one is no longer liked by Benzema today).
“I wanted to point this out with humor on Twitter in the context of freedom of expression. I’m not saying he’s a jihadist because he makes the same gesture as jihadists, I’m saying he’s ambiguous on the issue. »
The 35-year-old is playing the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League, won by his club last year, against Chelsea on Wednesday evening. The one who retired internationally from the France team in the wake of the World Cup missed through injury in November-December should not attend the trial in June.
