Karim Benzema renounces the appeal on the sextape case.
The French striker of Real, fresh winner of the La Liga and the Champions League, favorite for the next Ballon d'Or, has announced that he will not appear at the trial before the Court of Appeal of Versailles scheduled for 30 June and 1 July: proceeding that saw the French in the dock for complicity in attempted extortion and sentenced last November to one year in prison with parole, a fine of 75 thousand euros and a compensation of 80 thousand towards the former team-mate of the national team, Mathieu Valbuena.
After six years, the story that had caused so much sensation comes to an end: the confirmation of the step backwards by the Real Madrid star was given by the lawyer Hugues Vigier and will be notified to the parties by the Court of Versailles on Tuesday.
The lawyer stressed that the renunciation "is not an admission of guilt. It is a judicial truth, but it is not the reality. My client is tired of this affair, he will always declare himself innocent and never wanted to participate in blackmail against Valbuena. . This hearing would change nothing, "the lawyer told L'Equipe.
Benzema was the only one of the five convicts to have challenged the sentence and his former lawyer, Antoine Vey, had made it known that the footballer would appear before the judges to explain his version of events in person.
Now the turnaround.
Six and a half years have passed since the events, which took place during a meeting of the French team at the Clairefontaine training center in October 2015, and concern a red light video starring Valbuena and his girlfriend.
For the judges Benzema had personally committed himself to persuading his national team mate to get in touch with the blackmailers, pay and thus prevent the spread of the video ".
However, the scandal had an impact on the footballer's career, who was out of the national team for over five years and only returned to Didier Deschamps' team before last year's European Championships.
The announcement of the decision comes a few hours after France's 2-1 game against Denmark: but Benzema scored it.
