Karim Benzema will face trial over an alleged involvement in blackmailing of Mathieu Valbuena in a sex tape scandal, AFP reports.
The Real Madrid star has been accused of having pressured his former France team-mate to pay blackmailers, who threatened to reveal an intimate video which featured the 36-year-old attacker.
Benzema, who last played for the French national team in November 2015 has not featured for Les Bleus since the issue came to light.
The Versailles prosecutors did disclose that the 33-year-old striker would be taken to court. Though, date has not been revealed for the impending trial, according to AFP.
However, the former Lyon hitman has denied the allegation leveled against him, and has accused Valbuena of dragging his name “through the mud”.
He told L’Equipe in May 2017: “He said he would not have lodged a complaint if he knew I was involved in the story. For more than a year and a half I’m his worst enemy, a bad guy, a thug, I have to be punished, dragged through the mud, my name and that of my family, in the dirt.
“It has been almost two years since I was forbidden to see my best friend [Karim Zenati], if not we go to prison, and he is quiet, but he must stop his crap, and I do not know why he keeps talking about me already.
“[Saying] I am his enemy, I wanted to take money from him… he really has to stop inventing, it makes me mad to keep on lying.
“He just had to tell the truth about what really happened, and he would not have had all of this.”
Benzema has scored plenty of goals for the Los Blancos, with 261 efforts recorded through 533 appearances.
