#mathieuvalbuena

New Post has been published on http://aporotv.com/2015/12/03/3279/

Karim Benzema Breaks Silence Over Sex Tape Saga

Real Madrid and France striker Karim Benzema has spoken out for the first time to the media since the sex tape saga involving him and France teammate Mathieu Valbuena went public.

Benzema was arrested and interrogated by French police and now facing charges of conspiracy relating to an extortion scam over a sex tape featuring Valbuena. He is suspected of having played an active role in pressuring Valbuena to deal directly with the blackmailers.

Speaking in an interview with TV channel TF1 to be aired later Wednesday, Benzema said:

”I’d heard there was a video out there. I said I’d let him know. But I got the impression he already knew about it. I told him I could help him because I have a friend in Lyon [Benzema’s childhood friend Karim Zenati] that could deal with the problem.

“We spoke about it. I asked him if he had warned his family. I told him I’d found myself in situations like this in the past and that I’d told the police. He [Valbuena] told me he had told the police about it. Then afterwards, when I hear all this talk about extortion, and that I’d demanded money from him – it makes me angry.

Mathieu Valbuena And Karim Benzema

The idea that I would need money or my friend would need money – it’s ridiculous. I’ve earned a good living for a long time. I don’t need money. We never, never spoke about money.”

Asked if he understood why Valbuena has said he is “very disappointed” in him, he replied: “I understand. But that night, he wasn’t disappointed. On the contrary. He said to me – and he could tell you this himself – ‘thanks, brother, for having warned me.”

Benzema also hit back at French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who joined in the criticism of Benzema on Tuesday, saying he ‘has no place’ on the national team, days after Valbuena said he felt betrayed by his France team-mate.

“I’m getting accused of all sorts of things. They’re dragging my name through the mud as if I was a criminal. It’s horrible.”

“The only thing I regret in this whole thing is to have laughed about it on the phone with my childhood friend [Zenati]. That’s the only thing. I apologise to him [Valbuena] and his family for that. On the phone you act silly; sometimes you laugh about things that may be serious, but you don’t take them seriously,” He added.

‘Hopefully it will end well, we will all be OK … and we will all return to the France team to win that Euro,’ ‘I’m not playing for the cameras, I’m not playing a game, I’m here to be sincere,’ Benzema insisted.

Benzema’s involvement in the plot has not yet been fully determined, but investigators believe he was approached by a childhood friend, Karim Zenati, to act as an intermediary and convince Valbuena to deal directly with the blackmailers.