Sentenced by the Versailles Criminal Court in November 2021, the striker of the France team had appealed the decision.
Article written by
Published
Reading time : 1 min.
While he has just become the best French scorer in history, Karim Benzema is overtaken by his judicial news. AFP learned, Tuesday, March 15, the date of the appeal trial of the native of Lyon, which will therefore take place on June 30 and July 1, 2022 before the Versailles Court of Appeal.
The French will have finished his season with Real Madrid on June 30 and July 1 and will not then be retained in the France team. Contacted by AFP on Tuesday, his lawyers did not wish to comment on the date of the appeal trial or confirm his presence before the 9th chamber of the Versailles court of appeal.
During the first instance, the Real Madrid striker did not travel in the middle of the week of preparation for the match against FC Barcelona. He had been sentenced to a fine of 75,000 euros and a one-year suspended prison sentence for complicity in attempted blackmail against Mathieu Valbuena, with whom he had shared the field in the France team.
Karim Benzema did not appear at the first instance hearing for “professional reasons”, had justified his lawyer, Antoine Vey. But Me Vey had added during the deliberation that his client would come to explain himself on appeal.
During the judgment, the 7th chamber of the Versailles criminal court had estimated that the player had “personally involved, at the cost of subterfuge and lies, to convince his teammate to submit to blackmail”. The attacker did not show “no benevolence towards Matthieu Valbuena, quite the contrary” and acted “with a certain excitement, even a certain jubilation”, added its president.