Karim Benzema, the fourth-highest goal scorer for La Liga giants Real Madrid, has been given a one-year jail sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros ($84,000) by a Versailles court on Wednesday. The star forward was involved in a sex-tape scandal. 

Benzema was one of five people put on trial last month over an attempt to blackmail national colleague Mathieu Valbuena. He was found guilty. The 33-year-old denied wrongdoing. 

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What is the case all about?

Benzema was charged with complicity in the blackmail attempt over a sex tape thought to have been stolen from Valbuena’s mobile phone.

In June 2015, Benzema, as per the prosecutors, pressurised Valbuena to pay off the blackmailers, whom he had conspired with to act as an intermediary. 

Valbuena asked an Axel Angot to upload the contents of his mobile to a new device, when the latter found sexually explicit material on the phone. As per the prosecutor, Angot and Mustapha Zouaoui blackmailed Valbuena by threatening to make the tape public.

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Valbuena, now 37, with the help of the police, set up a sting operation. Karim Zenati was then roped into the scheme and Benzema  was asked to act as a “middleman”. 

Karim Benzema, in October 2015, approached Valbuena to pressurise him into paying the blackmailers. 

He and the four other were put on trial last month. Benzema did not attend the hearings and the verdict. His lawyers said he will appeal.

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“The reaction is ultimately an angry one to this judgment which is perfectly contradictory,” his lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, told reporters outside court.

French federation president Noel Le Great, ahead of the verdict, had said Benzema would be allowed to keep playing with France even if found guilty.