Benzema will hear a trial verdict at the end of November

The sentence on the attempted blackmail suffered by the French player Mathieu Valbuena with a video of sexual content, whose most famous accused is the star of the Real Madrid Karim Benzema will be announced on November 24, French justice said.

The verdict was expected this Friday, but the president of the court in Versailles has announced that the sentence will only be issued on 24 November.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for 10 months in prison with conditional suspension of the sentence for Benzema, accused of complicity in the attempt of blackmail, as well as a fine of 75,000 euros (approximately R$501,000), for considering that the wiretapping proves his “association ” with the plot.

On the final day of hearings, defense lawyers denounced a media case based solely on the “feelings” of the alleged victim, Mathieu Valbuena.

“Can we ask what really matters to the French in this case? The sex? The football? Not the judicial issue, anyway,” Benzema’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, who asked for the acquittal, told the court.

Vey denounced the prosecution’s “speculations” and said that “the intentional element of the crime” the 33-year-old is accused of was not typified.

In addition to Real No. 9, the trial has four other defendants accused of attempted blackmail, for which the MP asked for sentences ranging from 18 months in prison with conditional suspension to four years of imprisonment.

On October 6, 2015, Benzema went to Valbuena’s room at the French national team concentration, at the Clairefontaine training center, 40 kilometers from Paris.

Benzema told his teammate that he could introduce “someone he trusts” to help “manage” the possible release of a compromising video.

Benzema never spoke about money, but recommended his childhood friend Karim Zenati, with whom the alleged blackmailers had contacted to pressure the midfielder, after failing in their previous attempts.

Unlike Valbuena, who attended the hearings until Thursday, Benzema was not present at the trial – on Sunday he will play in the Spanish championship derby between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The scandal had sporting as well as legal consequences. Benzema and Valbuena, currently at Olympiakos in Greece, are no longer called up for the French national team.

The striker, however, returned to defending the French team on the eve of the Euro Cup played in 2021. And the coach of the Blues, Didier Deschamps, has already hinted that the court decision should not affect the striker’s presence in the Qatar-2022 World Cup.