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French prosecutors today called for Real Madrid star Karim Benzema to be handed a 10-month suspended sentence and £63,000 fine.
Benzema is one of five people on trial over a 2015 extortion attempt that halted his career with the French national team for five-and-a-half years.
The striker was allegedly complicit in the attempt to blackmail former France team-mate Mathieu Valbuena with a sex tape.
The affair rocked the French national team and led to both Benzema and Valbuena being cut from the squad.
Benzema, 33, made a successful comeback during this year's European championships but Valbuena, 37, was never called up by Les Bleus again.
'I apologise from the bottom of my heart, I really regret it,' Mustapha Zouaoui, one of four people accused along with Benzema of trying to hold Valbuena to ransom, told Valbuena on the second day of the trial.
Karim Benzema (pictured on Tuesday) is one of five people on trial over a 2015 extortion attempt that halted his career with the French national team for five-and-a-half years
Zouaoui is believed to have come up with the blackmail plot, which Valbuena says left him feeling fearful, both for his safety and his career.
Benzema, who played and scored for Real in a Champions League match in Ukraine on
