Benzema gets 1-year suspended prison sentence for sex tape blackmail

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - NOVEMBER 12: (FILE FOOTAGE ) Real Madrid's French star Karim Benzema on Wednesday was given a one-year suspended prison sentence for an extortion attempt with a sex tape in 2015 against his former France teammate Mathieu Valbuena. The French sports daily L'Equipe said the Versailles Criminal Court found Benzema, 33, guilty of complicity in the criminal plot against Valbuena to hand the suspect a one-year suspended jail sentence and also fined Benzema €75,000 (over $84,000) for the same reason. In addition to Benzema, the other four defendants -- Axel Angot, Mustapha Zouaoui, Younes Houass, and Karim Zenati -- have been found guilty by the French court. The French Football Federation President Noel Le Graet previously said Benzema will not be excluded from the national team in case of a conviction about the sex tape scandal that hurt the careers of both Benzema and Valbuena. Blackmailers have threatened Valbuena to release a sex tape that the player was involved in if they were not paid the ransom. Former Olympique Marseille attacking midfielder Valbuena, 37, was blackmailed before France's friendly against Armenia in October 2015. One of the suspects and Valbuena's teammate in the French national team in the 2010s, Benzema allegedly told him to pay the blackmailers.(Footage by Mehmet ozcan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)