Accused of “notorious link with the Muslim Brotherhood”, Benzema responds (dryly) to Darmanin

Karim Benzema “in notorious links with the Muslim Brotherhood”? This is what Gérald Darmanin declared Tuesday on CNEWS. Since then, the entourage of the Minister of the Interior has tried to clarify this accusation with several media, including Le Figaro, evoking "a slow drift in positions" the former player of Olympique Lyonnais and Real Madrid " towards a hard, rigorist Islam, characteristic of Brotherhood ideology.” This is obviously not to the taste of the striker of Al-Ittihad, a Saudi club, who recently addressed, on social networks, his “prayers (to) the inhabitants of Gaza, victims once again of these unjust bombings who spare neither women nor children.

It is through the voice of his lawyer, Me Hugues Vigier, that the former French international responds to Mr. Darmanin, refuting any link with the Muslim Brotherhood. “This is false! Karim Benzema has never had the slightest relationship with this organization. He also chose to live in Arabia which decreed the said terrorist organization, which France has never done,” squeaks Me Vigier for Le Parisien, adding that a reflection is underway on the subject of possible “pursuits against this minister in application, for example, of the law on the manipulation of information dear to our government... and defamation or even public insult, because this non-existent link with the Muslim Brotherhood that he says however notorious is obviously presented as derogatory. It is not acceptable for those who govern to believe they are authorized to do anything out of pure opportunism.”

That's not all. Benzema is also considering the opportunity to file a complaint against senator LR Valérie Boyer, who called for several types of sanctions in the event that Gérald Darmanin's accusations are proven, such as the withdrawal of his Ballon d'Or, a "symbolic" measure » according to him, but also the loss of nationality. Me Vigier evokes the legal impossibility of this last point, adding that it “would only remind Europe of Nazi Germany”.

If he is considering sending Gérald Darmanin and Valérie Boyer to court, Karim Benzema already no longer asks any questions about the European deputy Nadine Morano (LR) and the advertiser Frank Tapiro, the latter having reacted in “scandalous terms » to the 35-year-old's message on X (ex-Twitter) about Gaza. He will therefore file a defamation complaint, promises Me Vigier. “Nadine Morano and Frank Tapiro have caused a profound and unbearable attack on his honor,” justifies Hugues Vigier. Nadine Morano estimated, Monday on CNEWS, that Benzema is “an element of Hamas propaganda”. On I24, Frank Tapiro described the Lyonnais as an “accomplice of terrorism. It’s a collaboration.”