French footballer Karim Benzema has filed a defamation lawsuit against French far-right leader Éric Zemmour for statements in which he linked him to Islamist murders committed in France. The radio station RMC Sports reports that Benzema’s lawyer, Hugues Vigier, filed the complaint on Friday afternoon before the Paris Judicial Court.
If the lawsuit is accepted for processing, Zemmour faces a sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros, if found guilty, adds RMC Sports. Zemmour, president of the far-right Reconquete (Reconquista) party, had established a link between Benzema and the terrorist murders of two high school teachers, Samuel Paty in 2020 and Dominique Bernard in 2023.
In a televised interview last October, Zemmour said that Benzema “is a Muslim who wants to apply ‘sharia’ (Islamic law), and ‘sharia’ provides for ‘jihad’ (holy war), and ‘jihad’ means “Killing Dominique Bernard means killing Samuel Paty.”
Benzema already filed a complaint last Tuesday against the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who in another televised interview, also in October, considered Benzema’s links with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that in some countries is considered terrorist, “notorious.” although not in France, where it is not illegal either.
In the 92-page lawsuit, the minister is accused of generating division in France with his statements and of having caused harm to the children of the soccer player, who claimed to have “no relationship” with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“When the intention is not to import the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to France, it is not understandable that there is a risk of stoking the embers with false statements,” indicated the footballer’s lawyers.
