Footballer Karim Benzema guilty in sex tape blackmail case
Real Madrid and France striker Karim Benzema has been found guilty of conspiring to blackmail a fellow French footballer with a sex tape.
Benzema has been handed a one-year suspended jail term and ordered to pay a €75,000 fine.
He is one of five people who was put on trial last month over an attempt to extort Frenchman Mathieu Valbuena.
Both players initially lost their place in their national team.
The case dates back to June 2015 when the two footballers were at a French training camp.
At the camp, Benzema put pressure on Valbuena to pay off the blackmailers, whom he had conspired with to act as an intermediary, prosecutors said.
Benzema has always denied the allegations and insisted he was only trying to help Valbuena get rid of the compromising video.
Benzema is now back in the French national team and is likely to start for Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Benzema was not present in court in Versailles for the verdict, nor was Valbuena, who plays for Greek club Olympiakos.
The four co-defendants were also found guilty and handed jail sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Benzema’s lawyers said they would appeal his conviction.
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