“It’s my kids who are suffering because their father is being accused of being a terrorist,” Karim Benzema told his lawyer Hugues Vigier, a guest on Franceinfo on Friday. The player is accused by Gérald Darmanin of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood.
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“It’s dramatic, it’s pitiful, it’s low politics”, denounces Karim Benzema’s lawyer, lawyer Hugues Vigier, on Friday October 20 on franceinfo, after the controversy which broke out between the player and the Minister of the Interior. Gérald Darmanin accused the footballer on Monday October 16 on Cnews of maintaining links with the Muslim Brotherhood, just after a message posted on X by Karim Benzema addressing “all (his) prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare neither women nor children”.
The Minister of the Interior said Thursday on BFMTV that he would withdraw his comments on the condition that the player also posts a message to “also cry” the assassination of Professor Dominique Bernard, killed in Arras by a radicalized foreigner. Maître Hugues Vigier denounces “an odious blackmail”. “It is not up to Karim Benzema to show good faith: the Minister of the Interior has made a serious accusation, either it is fair, he says it, demonstrates it and he maintains his accusation, or it is false and political courage also means recognizing it”insists the lawyer.
The remarks of the Minister of the Interior are “pure electoralism”judges the advice of Karim Benzema, who ensures that this “will only fuel Islamophobic sentiment and far-right positions” In France. The lawyer assures that these remarks by the minister are “devastating”. “It’s my kids who are suffering because their father is being accused of being a terrorist”, would have entrusted the player to his advice. He assures that the practice of Islam by Karim Benzema “is in no way radical” and asserts that the player “did not know what the Muslim Brotherhood is, what this organization stands for.”
Maître Hugues Vigier confirmed that he was going to file a complaint, on behalf of his client, against the Minister of the Interior and against Eric Zemmour. He also cited the words of Senator Valérie Boyer, who called for the forfeiture of nationality for Karim Benzema if Gérald Darmanin’s words were true. “We will pursue those who made the most significant comments“, assures the lawyer.