Karim Benzema Files Defamation Complaint Against French Interior Minister (image-twitter/benzema)
French football star Karim Benzema filed a defamation case against French interior minister Gerald Darmanin who accused the footballer of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood, reports BBC.
The minister targeted the footballer in October after the former Real Madrid player expressed his solidarity with the people of Gaza through his social media account.
Gerald Darmanin said the former French striker was “well-known for his links with the Muslim Brotherhood”.
“We are fighting the hydra that is the Muslim Brotherhood because it creates an atmosphere of jihadism,” he added.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest political Islamist group in the Arab world.
Benzema denied the allegations and filed a defamation suit against the minister. In the 92-page complaint filed, he says “he has never had the slightest link with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, nor to (his) knowledge with anyone who claims to be a member of it”.
“I am aware of the extent to which, because of my notoriety, I am being used in political games, which are all the more scandalous given that the dramatic events since October 7 deserve something quite different from this type of statement,” he further added.
Benzema’s lawyer, Hugues Vigier, described the minister’s words as out of line. “It’s the exact opposite of what a man who calls himself a politician should be working towards”, he said to the French broadcaster RTL. He accused him of sowing division in France.
While Darmanin has not yet responded to the complaint filed against him.
The 36-year-old is now playing for the Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad. Expressing his solidarity with Gaza, he wrote on X, “Our prayers to the people of Gaza, victims once again of unjust bombardments that spare neither women nor children”, in mid-October.
Following Darmanin’s comment on the CNews Channel, a lawmaker asked for Benzema to be stripped of his Ballon d’Or award and for his French citizenship to be revoked.
Benzema is one of many Muslim footballers who had entered into the debate. Being born in France to parents of Algerian origin, he has been one of the standout French stars of the last decade.
Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and is banned in several Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.
