Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema has dropped an appeal against a one-year suspended sentence for complicity in a bid to blackmail former France teammate Mathieu Valbuena with a sex tape, his lawyer said Saturday.

Benzema was sentenced in November 2021 and fined 75,000 euros ($82,000) over the 2015 extortion attempt that shocked French football and saw him exiled from the French national team for five-and-a-half years.

The Real Madrid star has finally dropped his appeal, his lawyer Hugues Vigier told AFP, confirming a report on the Actu78 website.

The Versailles court of appeal will notify the parties of the withdrawal order on Tuesday.

Vigier previously told French sports daily L’Equipe Benzema did so because he was “exhausted” by the process.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

 

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