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Karim Benzema considering legal action against French minister over “terrorist link” allegations
The former Real Madrid striker has already filed complains for defamation against politician Nadine Morano and publicist Frank Tapiro.
Former Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema is considering legal action against French interior minister Gérald Darmanin, who accused him on Tuesday of having links to the controversial Muslim Brotherhood, considered a terrorist organisation by some countries, although not France. According to French daily newspaper Le Parisien, the reigning Ballon d’Or holder has already filed complaints for defamation against the Republican politician Nadine Morano, also a Member of the European Parliament, and publicist Frank Tapiro.
Benzema called “an agent of Hamas’s propaganda” and “an accomplice of terrorism”
Speaking to French radio station Europe 1, Morano claimed Benzema was “an agent of Hamas’s propaganda” after he posted a message on social media asking his followers to pray for civilians in Gaza, “once again victims of unjust bombings that spare neither women nor children”. Tapiro made similar claims, calling the 35-year-old “an accomplice of terrorism”.
Interior minister Gérald Darmanin’s Benzema claims
“This is false! Karim Benzema has never had any relation in the slightest with this organisation,” the striker’s lawyer, Hugues Vigier, told Le Parisien on Wednesday, before adding the former French international was considering taking legal action against Darmanin.
The French interior minister backed up his claim that Benzema had links to the Muslim Brotherhood by highlighting his refusal to sing the La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, for which he was regularly criticised during his time playing for France.
He also drew attention to a photo in which Benzema was pictured alongside iman Meaux Nourdine Mamoune, whose home was searched in 2020 as part of an investigation into the murder of French secondary school teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed by an Islamic terrorist.
Lastly, Darmanin referred to the player liking a social media post by Russian MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagedov attacking French president Emmanuel Macron and his “disciples” for “insulting the faith” of more than 1.5 billion Muslims.
Calls for Benzema to be stripped of French citizenship and Ballon d’Or
Benzema is also contemplating legal action against French Republican senator Valérié Boyer, who demanded on Wednesday the forward be stripped of both his French citizenship and Ballon d’Or if links to the Muslim Brotherhood are proven.
Vigier, on behalf on Benzema, explained to Le Parisien the reason for the complaints for defamation. “Praying for civilians who are being bombed, and women and children not being spared, is neither part of Hamas’s propaganda or being ‘an accomplice of terrorism’. By using these scandalous term, Nadine Morano and Frank Tapiro have inflicted a serious and unacceptable attack on his honour.”