French court nears decision in Karim Benzema blackmail case

Paris: A French court will Friday rule on a request by Real Madrid and France striker Karim Benzema to drop the investigation into alleged blackmail over a sextape featuring international teammate Mathieu Valbuena. [caption id=“attachment_3159180” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Karim Benzema. AP[/caption] Djibril Cisse, the former Liverpool and Marseille striker, could however be dragged into the investigation with prosecutors calling for him to be formally charged. The scandal cost Benzema a place in France’s Euro 2016 squad on home soil this year and he is yet to return to the international fold. Investigators suspect 28-year-old Benzema of acting as an intermediary between the presumed blackmailers – including one of his childhood friends – and Lyon midfielder Valbuena. Benzema and three of the other suspects have asked for the case against them to be dropped. They say police used “dishonest” methods by posing as a friend of Valbuena’s in a telephone conversation with one of the accused. Cisse meanwhile is said to have informed Valbuena that “rumours” were circulating about the existence of the sextape. The 35-year-old was arrested in the investigation in 2015 but was released without charge. He said in a TV interview at the time that he had only been arrested “so the investigators could hear my side of the story. I never swindled anyone – Mathieu is a friend”.