A senator from France asks to withdraw his nationality if any relationship between the former Madrid player and the Muslim Brotherhood is confirmed
MADRID, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
French footballer Karim Benzema, striker for Saudi Al-Ittihad, revealed this Wednesday that he is considering taking legal action against the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, for accusing him of having “notorious links” with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization Islamist considered a terrorist in the country.
Through his lawyer, Benzema denied any link with said group. “This is false!” “He has never had the slightest relationship with this organization,” Hugues Vigier told the newspaper ‘Le Parisien’. “He also chose to live in Arabia, a country that declared said organization as terrorist, something that France has never done,” the lawyer said. .
“We are considering initiating a process against this minister in application, for example, of the law on manipulation of information, so appreciated by our Government,” added Vigier. “And for defamation or even public insult,” added Benzema’s lawyer.
Thus, Vigier commented that “this non-existent link with the Muslim Brotherhood, which according to him is ‘notorious’, is clearly presented as derogatory.” “It is not acceptable that those who govern believe they are authorized to do something out of pure opportunism,” he added in this regard.
The former Real Madrid player will denounce MEP Nadine Morano, of the Les Républicains party, and publicist Frank Tapiro for defamation. Morano estimated in an interview that the player was “an element of propaganda” in the Palestine war, while Tapiro described Benzema as “a collaborator” of Hamas and “complicit in terrorism.”
In addition, French senator Valérie Boyer (also from Les Républicains) asked to withdraw his nationality if any relationship between the former Madrid player and the Muslim Brotherhood is confirmed. “It is urgent to act against those who constantly threaten our country,” Boyer said from her account on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
In her press release, the senator from Bouches-du-Rhône also requested that Benzema be stripped of the Ballon d’Or won in 2022. “We cannot accept that a person with dual French nationality, known internationally, can disgrace and even betraying our country in this way,” Boyer concluded.