Valbuena case: Benzema is found guilty and must pay a year in jail

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has been found guilty this Wednesday to one year in prison, although he will not go to jail except for a repeat offense, but he will have to pay a fine of 75,000 euros. Despite being found guilty in this case, the forward can feel calm.

The prosecution imposed on the player the lowest jail sentence, but the toughest financial sanction, because they consider that this should be an example for society. It should be remembered that Benzema was not charged with blackmail but with complicity in the crime, which clearly reduces his punishment.

In addition, Valbuena's testimony has been key to all this result, the player did attend the trial at Versailles, while Karim Benzema preferred not to. However, the Real Madrid forward's lawyer has described this decision as scandalous, and I assure that they will appeal to it.

What is the Valbuena case?

It was in 2015 when the Real Madrid striker was accused of complicity of blackmail where he allegedly would have pressured Mathieu Valbunea to pay a high amount of money and thus prevent a video of sexual content with his wife from coming to light.

This alleged sex video of the player and his wife, which Benzema claimed to have seen in Valbuena, was obtained by Axel Angot in 2014 while he was checking the French player's phone. Angot is well known in the football world for his good computer skills.

It was known that Angot kept said video without the intention of making it public, but months later he had to pay a debt and turned to him to take advantage of it, where he met with Mustapha Zouaoui, another known to most footballers who provide them with luxury products. Both would devise a plan in order to obtain a financial reward.

The main way of letting the midfielder know about the existence of this video was through his teammate Djibril Cissé, who at the same time would propose to Angot to help him erase it. But Valbuena would not do anything about it, and they went to Younes Houass, one of his trusted men.

However, Valbuena refused to comply with his requests and took this case before the police who began to wiretap all his phone calls. This is how they realized that the blackmailers had had contact with Zenati and that, in turn, he asked Benzema for help.

The (attacker) of the French team confirmed that this conversation did exist, but with the sole purpose of advising his friend and not pressuring him as Valbuena has assured.

However, the authorities considered that Benzema had participated in an illicit association for the preparation of a punishable offense that carries at least five years in prison. According to the material collected, it could be seen that the Real Madrid player called his teammate "fag" and assured that he had swallowed the pressure.

In the same way, during the first interrogations that Karim was given, he assured that he had seen the video of Valbuena and his wife, some statements of which I later retracted and that they accused him as an attempt to increase the pressure on the player to pay.

Others implicated in the Valbuena case are also convicted

Benzema and the other four involved in this Valbuena case have been convicted, but all of them with lower sentences than those that had been requested by the prosecutor.

• Mustapha Zouaoui : Whoever has been considered as the mind of this whole operation would be receiving two and a half years in jail and a fine of 3,000 euros.

• Karim Zaneti : Benzema's friend who called him to involve him will receive fifteen months in jail and a 3,000 euro fine.

• Axel Angot : Whoever got the video of the sexual content will receive two years in prison and the enforcement will be decided by the courts.

• Younes Houass : Whoever has participated as an intermediary will receive 18 months in jail, exempt from compliance.

All of them are part of this environment of the underworld of Marseille and Lyon, as evidenced by their criminal records and their lack of known trade. All of them are behind the video stolen from Valbuena in 2015. It must be remembered that at first they called Valbuena to demand 150,000 euros or the images would be distributed throughout the world.

When this whole case came to light, the forward of the French team at that time was immediately removed from the national team. Noél Le Graét, personally asked Didier Deschamps that he will not have the player despite the great footballing moment he went through in 2018.

It was for this reason that Karim Benzema had to withdraw from the national team, thus missing the World Cup in Russia and the European Championship. However, this 2021 has produced his return to the team with which he already won the Nations Cup.

This is how the cat is now part of Pogba and Mbappé's team, with the latter they have formed a lethal duo that is now envied by all the teams in the world. It should be borne in mind that this decision by the French authorities should not again imply that he is banned from the selection.

Benzema found guilty

Karim Benzema has been declared guilty this Wednesday, November 24, for the Valbuena case, to a year in prison, and will have to pay a fine of 75,000 euros. This sentence could be modified and be much less or at least this has been confirmed by the forward's lawyer who will appeal this decision.