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Benzema free to play for France despite sex-tape probe

Karim Benzema could yet line up in the French team alongside Mathieu Valbuena, after legal restrictions linked to his involvement in a sex tape blackmail plot were lifted.

Published: 11 March 2016 11:08 CET

Benzema free to play for France despite sex-tape probe

Photo: AFP

France and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema is free to play in Euro 2016 after legal restrictions placed on him over his alleged involvement in a sex tape blackmail case were lifted Friday, his lawyers said.

Under the restrictions, Benzema was not allowed to come into contact with his international teammate Mathieu Valbuena, who was the target of the blackmail attempt.

But an appeals court upheld an investigating magistrate's decision to lift the restrictions, allowing Benzema to be involved in the same national squad as Valbuena, if the two are selected for the tournament that France is hosting.

“Good sense has won the day,” one of Benzema's lawyers, Sylvain Cormier, told reporters.

“Now the decision (of Benzema's potential involvement in Euro 2016) is no longer ours,” he added.

France coach Didier Deschamps suspended 28-year-old Benzema from the national team after he was placed under formal investigation over the affair in November.

Despite Friday's ruling, Benzema remains under investigation.

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Real Madrid's Benzema hits out at attempted kidnapping claims

Karim Benzema has been accused of attempting to kidnap someone who owes him money. Photo: AFP

“This must stop,” Benzema said on his Twitter page Friday following a report by the Mediapart website implicating the exiled France international in the attempted kidnap.

Mediapart's report, published late on Thursday, claimed Benzema was personally involved in the alleged attempt because he was owed the money by a supposed victim identified only as Leo D.

The report cites the testimony of Leo D., a former acquaintance of Benzema's who filed a complaint with police on October 8th following the alleged kidnap.

The 33-year-old said close acquaintances of Benzema, including the player's driver, attempted to load him into a black van in Paris on October 7th following the Paris Saint-Germain v Lyon league clash.

Mediapart said money owed to the player was behind the attempt and that the victim, according to his testimony, believes he saw Benzema in the back of the van.

Prosecutors in Paris have opened an investigation into the driver over the attempted extortion, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

Benzema, however, is believed not to have been present, according to the latest police reports Benzema's lawyer Sylvain Cormier played down Leo D.'s claims, saying: “This man has not been signed off from work for medical reasons, he's accusing a friend of Benzema's of grabbing his arm, and we also know that Karim Benzema was not present.

“And yet, he (Benzema) is being accused of attempted kidnapping. It's just grotesque.”

Benzema, who has not played for France since being left out of the squad ahead of Euro 2016, has been dogged by controversy in previous years.

In 2010 he was one of four French players charged with soliciting sex with a minor, 16-year-old prostitute Zahia Dehar. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.

In 2015 he was arrested over his alleged role in a sextape scandal in which former France teammate Mathieu Valbuena was allegedly blackmailed.

That episode put his France career on hold after then French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said “athletes need to be exemplary. If they are not, they have no place on the France team.”

The Paris appeals court is to rule in November on whether the sex tape investigation can continue.

READ MORE: Real Madrid's Benzema 'admits role' in sex tape blackmail scheme

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