Three days after the complaint filed against Gérald Darmanin, Karim Benzema filed a complaint against Éric Zemmour, this Friday, January 19, 2024, for defamation after the polemicist qualified him as an “Islamist” on television.
The lawyer of Karim Benzema, the star striker of the Saudi club Al-Ittihad, filed a complaint this Friday, January 19, 2024 at the Paris judicial court against the president of the far-right Reconquest party, Éric Zemmour. The politician had described the 2022 Ballon d’Or as “an Islamist” who “does not like France”, in October 2023, on the set of France 2, making a questionable link between the former French international and the attacks committed against professors Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, recalls RMC Sport. On the set of BFMTV, Thursday, Maître Vigier, Karim Benzema’s lawyer, defended his client by insisting that the latter “has no problem with France”. If this complaint is deemed admissible, “Éric Zemmour faces a year and a fine of 45,000 euros,” the channel said.
This complaint follows that filed three days earlier by Karim Benzema’s lawyer, against Gérald Darmanin. The football player also accuses the Minister of the Interior of defamation for comments that the strong man from Beauvau made on October 16, 2023 on CNews and in which he presumes “notorious links” between Karim Benzema and the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political organization that wishes to impose Islamic republics in Muslim countries.
In a “very detailed 92-page document, including 80 annexes”, Karim Benzema denies any link with the Muslim Brotherhood, explains BFMTV. “I have no link with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization considered terrorist by several countries including Saudi Arabia (not France),” defended the 36-year-old attacker before denouncing “petty political opportunism, petty” by Darmanin. Stranded on Mauritius due to Cyclone Belal, the French striker was unable to reach his club Al Ittihad to resume training last Friday. According to his entourage, Karim Benzema returned to Saudi Arabia this Friday.